At summit, U.S. hopes for backing on Mideast liberty

SEA ISLAND, Ga. - The Bush administration, expecting a quick and favorable vote on a U.N. resolution on Iraq, turned Monday toward winning support at a summit of world leaders for a broader effort to promote democracy in the Middle East at large.

President Bush is hoping his greater Middle East initiative will be a key accomplishment at this year's Group of Eight summit, which brings together leaders of the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Russia.

The White House appeared undaunted by the protests its original proposal provoked in the Arab world or the fact that some major Arab countries including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Morocco turned down Bush's request to attend this year's summit.

Employing tough language, U.S. officials said a swelling population of undereducated and underemployed young people in the Middle East had to have hope for a better future if the world was to avoid rising extremism.

"The idea that we were somehow buying stability by turning a blind eye to the absence of freedom has been exposed, and exposed in the form of extremism," Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser, told reporters at a media center in Savannah, some 80 miles north of the summit site.

A security force of more than 10,000 local, state and federal officials protected the island and the media center in Savannah, vastly outnumbering the protesters who showed up for a few sparsely attended demonstrations on Monday.

Before tonight's beginning of formal talks, U.S. officials were trying to clear roadblocks to what they hope will be announcements not only on the Middle East but also on the fight against global poverty and disease.

Rice said agreement was very close on the wording for a new U.N. Security Council resolution to endorse the handover of sovereignty to Iraqis in three weeks and to authorize a U.S.-led force to remain in Iraq.

The G-8 will meet over lunch Wednesday with the leaders of Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Turkey, Yemen and the new president of Iraq to discuss Bush's broader Middle East plan.

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