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Prime Minister Stephen Harper is likely to stand as a welcome ally for United States President George W. Bush as world leaders meeting here grapple with the increasingly dangerous situation in the Middle East.

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But the summit countries — other members are host Russia, France, Britain, Germany, Japan and Italy — are badly split on who is responsible for the latest Middle East flare-up and how to keep it from spreading into a regional war.

Bush is pressing for G-8 leaders to adopt a joint declaration laying the blame for the crisis directly on Hezbollah, as well as the militant Islamic group's allies in Iran and Syria and the Palestinian group Hamas.

But most other leaders here differ with Bush. While recognizing Israel's right to defend itself, they argue that the Jewish state's military onslaught in Lebanon in the past few days was an overreaction that is feeding the spiral of violence.

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Refreshing isn't it? Nice to know our minority government leader is siding with a war criminal. I know I get the warm fuzzie. I mean, Bush is just so swift when it comes to complex issues.

[ 16 July 2006: Message edited by: Stargazer ]

Wildly disproportionate attack on Lebanon seems like pretext to confront Iran

[ 16 July 2006: Message edited by: Stargazer ]