Bush Falls Ill at G-8 Summit
Friday June 8, 2007 9:46 AM AP Photo HLD120, HLD119, HLD118, FXC120, DEGH103 By JENNIFER LOVEN Associated Press Writer HEILIGENDAMM, Germany (AP) - Stricken with a stomach ailment that confined him to his hotel room, President Bush still met Friday with France's new president and prepared for talks in Poland on a new missile defense system. The president was already dressed when he began feeling ill in the morning, White House counselor Dan Bartlett said. He said doctors are keeping an eye on him but that Bush's illness - whether a stomach virus, a light touch of food poisoning or something else - is ``not serious.'' He stayed in bed to try to rest and recuperate, missing the morning session of the summit being held here of eight industrialized democracies. But Bush taped his weekly radio address, and - for now - was not expected to alter his travel plans for later in the day, Bartlett said. After attending the summit's final day, Bush was scheduled to fly to Poland to meet with Polish President Lech Kaczynski and then on to Rome where he was to stay the night. His sit-down with French President Nicolas Sarkozy on the sidelines of the larger summit meetings went ahead as planned, only in Bush's private chambers instead of a meeting room, Bartlett said. The summit session Bush missed was a meeting with African leaders. Stepped-up Africa aid was one of Bush's priorities coming into Germany. Just before that meeting, members of the Group of Eight agreed on a program worth more than $60 billion to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS and fight malaria and tuberculosis in Africa. Critics have said all the G-8 nations are lagging on the promises they made two years ago, at the British-hosted summit, to double assistance to the troubled continent by 2010. It was unclear if, or when, Bush would rejoin the summit. The last session of the gathering is a discussion with leaders from China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa, all developing nations not G-8 members. Bartlett joked that Bush's decision to steer clear of the other leaders for a while was a ``precautionary step'' to avoid following in the footsteps of his father, former President George H. W. Bush. The elder Bush fell ill and collapsed in the international spotlight in January 1992 during a summit in Tokyo. A videotape of Bush's collapse at a state dinner showed him toppling unconscious from his chair and vomiting as Barbara Bush rushed to aid him. The first sign that something was amiss came when Sarkozy appeared alone before reporters after their meeting. Speaking in French, he said only that Bush was in his bedroom and that Bush's spokesmen would have to explain further. Bartlett said the two leaders discussed a myriad of issues, including Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur, trade and missile defense. It was their first meeting since Sarkozy took office less than a month ago and only their second overall; the first was September in Washington. Sarkozy said Bush had invited him to come to the United States. ``The president felt that they established a real personal rapport,'' Bartlett said. The new French president, seen as friendly to the United States, will likely be a welcome change from the merciless tormenting Bush received from Sarkozy's predecessor, Jacques Chirac. To be sure, Sarkozy does not fall in lockstep with U.S. policies. For instance, he, like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the summit host, had pushed for hard greenhouse gas emission reduction targets out of the week's gathering. French officials said Sarkozy told Bush during a working session Thursday that ``quantitative targets'' on emissions were not negotiable. ``We cannot wait anymore,'' Sarkozy said. Turns out they will. The agreement on climate change produced by the leaders promises only to consider a goal of a 50 percent cut by 2050 as one option for tackling global warming. Instead of adopting that approach, proposed by Merkel, the leaders came around to Bush's insistence that a to-be-determined, and not necessarily binding goal be set later, by a wider group that includes emerging economies. Still, Sarkozy earned the label ``Sarko the American'' from some in France during his campaign. He is one of a couple of new leaders that make Europe a more comfortable place for Bush to be these days - even with the impending departure of Tony Blair, the British prime minister who has been Bush's most steadfast foreign ally. Germany is another place Bush can now look for friendlier ties. Merkel has made it her goal to strengthen relations with the United States. Merkel succeeded Gerhard Schroeder, who had partnered with Chirac in an alliance of unrelenting opposition against the U.S. on the Iraq war. In Poland, Bush is seeing Kaczynski at that country's equivalent to the American presidential retreat at Camp David. The three-hour stop in Poland serves as a bookend to Bush's trip-opening visit to the Czech Republic. Bush has chosen the two nations as the sites for a new missile defense system. That system has been a source of much heated dispute with Russia. On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin presented Bush with a surprise counterproposal built around an old Soviet-era radar system in Azerbaijan rather than the new defenses in Poland and the Czech Republic. Bush said he would consider it. Bartlett said Sarkozy was interested in hearing about Putin's substitute proposal, but that the discussion didn't go beyond that. He said Bush's talks with Kaczynski would be ``an important consultation. ``Don't expect to have definitive answers to a very complicated set of issues,'' he said. ``This is going to be a continuing dialogue with all interested parties.'' Azerbaijan's foreign minister, Elmar Mammadyarov, said Friday the former Soviet republic along the Caspian Sea is ready to consider proposed joint U.S.-Russian use of its radar facility.
US President George W. Bush at the G8 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
United States President George W. Bush has fallen ill and has missed the morning session of the G8 Summit, but has returned to the day's events.

"The President had a good rest this morning. He's feeling better, not 100 percent, but he feels good enough to rejoin the meeting. He just left his suite a short while ago, so we are back on schedule," said a spokesman for the White House, Tony Fratto.

Earlier Dan Bartlett, the White House counselor stated that Bush was dressed and ready for the meeting when he began to feel sick and that his condition is likely a "stomach virus, a light touch of food poisoning or something else" and called the situation "not serious."

"Not sure if it's a stomach virus yet or something like that, but (he's) just not feeling well in the stomach, and guess he didn't want to follow in the footsteps of his father in Asia," added Bartlett.

Despite being ill, Bush still taped his weekly radio address to the people of the U.S., and managed to meet with Nicolas Sarkozy, the newly elected president of France, but only on a private level and in Bush's hotel room.  

"I have just come out of a meeting with president Bush who is slightly unwell. He will join the working session when he can," said Sarkozy to reporters as he was leaving the meeting with Bush.

The illness did not change the travel plans Bush has for the day, but doctors "are still keeping an eye on him," added Bartlett, who also said that "he Bush feels terrible about any disruption he may have caused."

George H. W. Bush, a former President of the U.S. and the father of the current President, threw up and collapsed during a dinner with Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa at the Prime Minister's residence in 1992.