The icy relations between Moscow and London failed to thaw last night after Gordon Brown held his first face-to-face talks with Dmitri Medvedev, the new Russian President, at the G8 summit in Japan.
The icy relations between Moscow and London failed to thaw last night after Gordon Brown held his first face-to-face talks with Dmitri Medvedev, the new Russian President, at the G8 summit in Japan.
An hour of discussions on "all the difficult questions" from Russia's staunch refusal to extradite the chief suspect in the Alexander Litvinenko murder case and the forced closure of some operations of the British Council cultural organisation to the escalating commercial dispute between BP and Russian oil giants, failed to produce any diplomatic breakthrough.
Nonetheless, No 10 sought to look on the bright side, describing the meeting as "constructive and workmanlike" - diplomatic speak for difficult and uncompromising.
The Prime Minister pointed to "common ground" in areas such as the Middle East peace process and Iran's nuclear ambition. But UK-Russian relations remain firmly in the deep-freeze.
The talks came after Mr Brown hailed "growing support" for tougher sanctions against Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe after G8 leaders debated the situation with their African counterparts.
It is one of three issues on which he will push for firmer action when the world's eight leading industrialised nations - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the US and the UK - sit down to thrash out their annual deal later today.
Speaking after meeting the African leaders attending the summit, the PM urged the international community to send a "strong message" that it did not accept Mr Mugabe's election as president in a one-candidate run-off.
"People know that this was an election that was illegitimate, marked by violence, intimidation, deaths and, of course, the opposition leader not able fully to participate," said Mr Brown.
"So I don't think anybody is recognising the legitimacy of the regime and it is important that we send a very strong message internationally that this is not acceptable.
"There is growing support for sanctions against the Mugabe regime being stepped up and there is growing support also for the proposal that a UN envoy be asked to go to Zimbabwe to make sure that the parties in Zimbabwe know that we have to work for a transition, so that there is a legitimate government, one that we can support and one that, when it does exist, we will want to help with reconstruction."
The Prime Minister defended his call on British households to do their bit to solve the world food crisis by cutting waste - after a government study found discarded foodstuffs cost each £8 a week.
He said: "It is right to remind people how £8 a week is wasted in our food consumption and then we can do better at home as well."
Today's main session of the summit will see leaders concentrating on the global economic slowdown, the potential for agreeing a world trade deal this month and foreign policy matters.
The PM is hoping his fellow summiteers will back a stronger commitment to cutting greenhouse gases and to recommit to promises made at the G8 gathering in Gleneagles to double international aid by 2010 which are now off course.
In 2005, leaders pledged to increase foreign aid by $50bn a year by 2010 - with half of that going to Africa - and to cancel the debt of the most heavily indebted poor nations.
"If that money were on the ground, we estimate that five million lives a year would be saved," declared Charles Abani, regional director for Oxfam in Nigeria. He noted that it could have been spent on health services, education that lowers vulnerability to Aids and lifesaving steps.
Collectively, the G8 has delivered just $3bn of the $25bn additional aid pledged to Africa at the Scottish summit in 2005, according to the Data advocacy group founded by U2 singer Bono and musician Bob Geldof.
Germany, America and Britain were following through on commitments, it said, while progress from France, Italy, Japan and Canada was either unclear or weak.
