Tony Blair is still hoping for a breakthrough on climate change under Britain's presidency of the Group of Eight leading industrial nations and will use his first in-depth discussion on the subject with President George W. Bush on Tuesday to urge further US action.

But the British prime minister has made clear that the UK will no longer try to persuade Washington to back the international finance facility (IFF) proposed by Gordon Brown, chancellor of the exchequer, which aims to double aid flows to Africa. The IFF would have allowed governments to borrow on capital markets to spend future aid money now. Instead, Britain is hoping to salvage an agreement on the cancellation of debts owed to the World Bank.