WASHINGTON, June 2: US President George W. Bush on Saturday praised US “global leadership and generosity” ahead of a Group of Eight summit in Germany expected to be marked by massive protests against the war in Iraq.

As many as 100,000 people from anti-poverty and anti-globalization groups were expected to demonstrate outside the German coastal resort of Heiligendamm where the leaders of the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Russia and Japan will hold their annual parley beginning Wednesday.

But in his weekly radio address, Bush avoided mentioning Iraq or long-standing US opposition to radical cuts in greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.

Instead, he focused on what he called US efforts to “lift societies out of poverty” and “help reduce chaos and suffering” around the world.

Our nation is delivering aid and comfort to those in need, Bush said.

We're helping expand opportunity across the world. He added that “in all these endeavors, the American people can be proud of our global leadership and generosity.”

To prove his point, the US leader mentioned his decision, announced last Tuesday, to tighten economic sanctions against Sudan and to seek new UN Security Council action that will expand the arms embargo, and prohibit Sudan's government from conducting offensive military flights over the troubled region of Darfur.

Environmental groups immediately criticized the plan as vague and based on non-binding limits on the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, but Britain and Germany hailed the move as an important, if symbolic, step forward.

In his address, the US president chose to focus on the contribution to world environmental health that he believes must be made by developing rather than industrialized countries, arguing that the United States must help them adopt new clean energy technologies.

Through the spirit of innovation, we will help developing nations grow their economies and be responsible stewards of the environment, Bush said.---AFP