Summit fails to solve climate dispute

Mounted police drove back the protesters

The European Union and the United States have failed to resolve their disagreement over the Kyoto protocol on global warming.

A joint communique issued after the summit of European leaders and US President George W Bush said that, while both sides recognised the need for strong leadership to reach a global solution on climate change, differences over the protocol had not been bridged.

We don't agree on the Kyoto treaty, but we do agree that climate change is a serious issue and we must work together

US President George W Bush

As the summit proceeded, environmentalists and anti-globalisation activists clashed with Swedish riot police in Gothenburg.

Demonstrators hurled bottles and stones at police who were preventing them from converging on the European Union summit venue, and more than 200 people were arrested.

The BBC's correspondent Angus Roxburgh says that scuffles erupted in the early afternoon between activists who gathered at a school near the summit venue and police, who charged at them, armed with riot shields and truncheons.

The situation later calmed down and groups of protesters were sitting at road junctions around the school, facing riot police across the cordons.

A demonstrator expresses her disapproval of Mr Bush's policies

In another part of town, protesters bared their backsides in an exhibition of their opposition to Mr Bush's policies.

At a news conference after the summit, President Bush said, "We agreed to create new channels of co-operation on this topic."

He added: "We don't agree on the Kyoto treaty, but we do agree that climate change is a serious issue and we must work together."

Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson said the EU would go ahead with the ratification process of the Kyoto protocol despite the US opposition.

"There is a unified European message to President Bush and that is you have to be more environmentally friendly - you have to be greener," EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstroem told the BBC.

US optimism

At the summit, Mr Bush expressed optimism over his administration's relations with Europe.

"We look forward to a constructive relationship," he told the leaders of the 15 EU nations.

Mr Bush: Committed to a prosperous Europe

"What the people of Europe and Sweden will realise is (that) mine is an administration that is deeply committed to a prosperous Europe and whole Europe and a free Europe."

Mr Bush has provoked anger in Europe by describing the Kyoto treaty as "unrealistic and not based on science".

This week, the EU - of which Sweden currently holds the presidency - dismissed his alternative pledge to fund further research into global warming as being short on action.

Missile defence

The EU's development of its own military role and the shaky situation in Macedonia were also expected to be high on the agenda.

At a Nato meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, Mr Bush said he believed he was "making good progress" in convincing Nato members of the need for his controversial missile defence system.

Mr Persson: "Kyoto is necessary"

But despite his optimism, a BBC correspondent says a Nato consensus on the issue seems far away.

While Mr Bush has stressed that it is necessary to "prepare for new threats", his allies are concerned that the system could upset the delicate global diplomatic balance and trigger a new arms race.

After the summit, Mr Bush is due to travel to Poland before meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Slovenia on Saturday.