Obama joins world leaders at G8 summit

ROME (AP) - President Barack Obama joined fellow world leaders Wednesday for three days of intense talks on threats to global security and stability at a G-8 summit where climate change, the continuing global economy crisis and world hunger got top billing.

The meetings in Italy may lack the intrigue of Obama's sit-downs earlier in the week with Russia's top leaders, or the emotion of the reception the first black American president surely will get in Ghana Saturday. But they won't lack for ambition, on the surface at least, as the world's most powerful officials discuss the problems threatening the planet.

Obama and first lady Michelle Obama and their daughters arrived in Rome Wednesday morning. He and the leaders of seven other industrialized nations will meet at L'Aquila, northeast of Rome, before they widen their circle to include fast-growing countries like China and India, and struggling nations from Africa. In large and small groups, the talks will involve trade, Iran's nuclear ambitions, food security and other issues.

Obama went immediately into a meeting with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano after arriving at the stately Quirinale Palace, accompanied by Michelle. He met his host in a spectacular setting that included a large room with a soaring ceiling, gilded walls and doors and huge chandaliers.

Topping the list of G-8 discussions are possible ways to slow the release of greenhouse gases linked to global warming.

Many foreign leaders want the United States to embrace a target of limiting the rise in average planetary temperatures to 3.6 degree (2 degrees Celsius), no higher than in 1900, before widespread industrialization. Scientists say an increase beyond that could trigger dangerous rises in sea level and other dire problems.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs declined Wednesday to say whether the administration would endorse the goal. But he suggested that the administration is putting its political emphasis on what it can accomplish back home with Congress, not with the Group of Eight (or G-8) at an international summit.

"I would say that I think our biggest contribution to this is the steps that were taken by the House," Gibbs said, referring to legislation requiring reductions in greenhouse gases.

Asked how Obama would define success at this summit on the issue of climate change, Gibbs said: "I think in many ways success for us is going to be getting something through Congress and to his desk that puts in place a system, market-based system, that lessens the amount of greenhouse gases in the air."

Setting goals and achieving them, of course, are different things, and G-8 meetings often are known more for high-minded roundtables and photo opportunities than for concrete results. Even before Obama left Washington, his aides tamped down expectations of breakthroughs at L'Aquila.

On the economy, "This will be more about exchanging views at this midpoint between the two G-20 summits than an opportunity to produce a series of specific deliverables, as you would call them," presidential adviser Mike Froman told reporters this month, referring to an expanded group of world leaders that generally meets in April.

He also said that it's not quite time for industrialized nations to pull the plug on economic stimulus efforts.

Froman said the world leaders gathered here will seek a balance between continuing to stimulate sluggish economies and looking for exit strategies. He also told reporters there is still uncertainty and risk in the global economy and said said it's important to return to fiscal sustainability, which would not include government stimulus efforts. Some G-8 leaders have urged Obama to support an end to stimulus efforts soon.

Obama made a major speech in Moscow and planned another for Ghana, but not one in Italy. Barring a breakthrough on climate change, or perhaps new sanctions against Iran, the emotional highlight of Obama's Italy trip may be his audience Friday with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican.

Before that, Obama was also to meet individually with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in addition to his talks with Napolitano.

The three-day summit will involve ever-growing numbers of nations beyond the G-8, whose members are the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and Japan. Various meetings will include representatives of Egypt, Turkey, Mexico and several other nations.

Steven Schrage, a business scholar at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the G-8 sometimes struggles for a clear-cut identity and purpose. The best title for this week's meeting, he said, might be "G-question mark."

"It's going to start with the traditional G-8," Schrage said, "but then rapidly accelerate into a kind of crescendo of different nations, going up to 39 nations that will span much of the globe."

The most intensive discussions of climate change may occur Friday, when Obama hosts a discussion on the topic. He also will hold a news