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Cameron calls for planning for new government without Assad, while key aspects of G8 deal on tax evasion hang in the balance
David Cameron tried at the G8 leaders' summit to create "a clarifying moment" that would pave the way for a Syrian peace conference, by setting out the terms those present should agree on as the basis for a transition to a government after Bashar al-Assad's departure.
A failure to reach consensus at the summit in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, British officials warned, might well represent the last chance for a peace to end the bloody two-year civil war in Syria that has claimed more than 90,000 lives. It comes as pressure is mounting for western countries to arm the rebels.
At the risk of isolating the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, the prime minister pressed his fellow G8 leaders to forge an agreement around five principles for peace. They include a demand that all agree to a transition to a new government in Syria that would have executive powers over all institutions including the army.
"This is a potentially clarifying moment on Syria, a moment to search out whether there is common ground, and the basis for a political settlement," British officials said at the summit.
Despite an icy Putin-Cameron press conference at Downing Street on Sunday night, the prime minister believes it is still possible to press Putin to agree to the principles proposed and so open the way for a second peace conference in Geneva, possibly in July.
Elsewhere, key aspects of a G8 deal on tax evasion were still in the balance last night as Cameron sought to meet demand from campaigners that an agreement should deliver benefits for developing countries.
Downing Street was battling to ensure that plans for registers that list the true owners of companies with accounts held offshore are made publicly available, and that a G8 agreement to share tax information is accessible to poor countries.
George Osborne will arrive at Lough Erne on Tuesday to brief the G8 during the session on tax, and UK sources said they were confident of securing a good outcome. Britain is hopeful that France and perhaps one other country will agree to public registers of ownership and that some developing countries will be part of the tax-sharing deal from the outset.
The summit also announced the formal launch of EU-US negotiations for a transatlantic free trade deal, hailed by Cameron as potentially the biggest bilateral agreement in history. Joined by Barack Obama and José Manuel Barroso, president of the European commission, the prime minister said the agreement would mean cheaper prices, more choice and extra jobs for the UK – with the British government hoping talks can be completed by late 2014.
The Syrian plan includes improved humanitarian assistance and access within Syria; tackling jihadist extremism within the rebel movement; and an acknowledgement that the use of chemical weapons is unacceptable – ideally coupled with agreement that these have been deployed by the Assad regime. The plan also proposes "day one planning" for a new Syrian regime and finally transition to a new government with executive authority.
However, Putin has insisted that Assad is the legitimate leader of the Syrian regime, although he is likely to find himself isolated in that view at the G8. Some diplomatic sources were suggesting the seven other members of the G8 – including Germany, France, Japan, Italy and Canada – would put out their own communiqué if the Russian leader refused to acknowledge that Assad had to abandon his leadership. The future of Assad was the single biggest stumbling block to an agreement at the initial Geneva peace conference held last year.
Cameron, in previous three-hour talks in May with Putin at Sochi, became convinced that the Russian leader understood the terrorist threat to his own country if jihadists gained the upper hand in Syria or the wider Middle East. At the same time Cameron acknowledged there were big differences between Russia and the rest of the G8 on how to resolve the war.
Underlining the point, Putin made some of his most forceful remarks on Syria on Sunday, describing the anti-Assad rebels as cannibalsand warning of the dangers of giving guns to such people. Moscow also said it would not permit no-fly zones over Syria, something the US said was off the agenda.
In a sign of the tensions, the French president, François Hollande, criticised Russia for sending weapons to Assad's forces and considering deliveries of a sophisticated missile system. "How can we allow that Russia continues to deliver arms to the Bashar al-Assad regime when the opposition receives very few and is being massacred?" he asked.
Assad warned that Europe would pay the price if it delivered arms to the Syrian rebels. "If the Europeans deliver weapons, the backyard of Europe will become terrorist and Europe will pay the price for it," he told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Cameron will also try to strengthen the G8's resolve to fight terrorists by persuading all eight countries to agree not to pay ransom money to terrorists.Downing Street clams the al-Qaida franchise in the Sahel has garnered €33m (£28m)in the past three years exclusively from ransom money. Britain believes that among the rest of the G8, only the US and Canada have shown a resolve not to pay ransom money, and wants the other five members to make the same public commitment.