PARIS (AFP) - George W. Bush's 11th-hour initiative on climate change has severely roiled international waters, threatening to plunge the G8 summit of industrialized economies starting Wednesday into a stormy debate over how best to keep the planet from overheating.
The US president's call for a "new framework" in which the world's biggest carbon polluters will set long-term goals for curbing greenhouse gases was especially unsettling for summit host German Chancellor
Angela Merkel, who is seeking to forge a binding pact to cap world temperature rises.
Currently president of both the G8 and the European Union, Merkel reacted to Bush's statement by drawing a line in the sand.
Keeping negotiations on reducing global carbon emissions within the existing United Nations structure, she insisted, was "non-negotiable."