Prime Minister Tony Blair acknowledged in an interview published Tuesday that he will not win US support for his plans to double aid to Africa or the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, but insisted progress could still be made on Britain's G8 priorities.

Speaking to the Financial Times newspaper on Monday before leaving for a meeting with US President George W. Bush in Washington, Blair said there were "certain things we know they are not going to do.''

Asked if he thought he could persuade Bush to shift some ground, Blair responded: "Wait and see. There's all sorts of ways people can get into this argument. We are at the beginning of the process.''

Washington rejects a British plan, called the International Finance Facility, to raise an extra US$50 billion a year in aid for the world's poorest countries by selling bonds on the world's capital markets.

The Bush administration says the mechanism would bind future governments to providing money and thus conflicts with US budget laws. Washington also rejects a British proposal that the International Monetary Fund sell some of its massive gold reserves to fund increased aid.

Bush also remains steadfastly opposed to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming, saying it would damage the US economy.

Blair has long accepted such resistance, but is still pushing for Washington to accept that man-made pollutants are causing the earth's temperature to rise, with potentially devastating results. He also wants a scientific drive to tackle the problem, including greater research in green technology - a proposal Washington backs.

"There are certain things we know they are not going to do, that we are not asking them to do,'' Blair told the newspaper. ``We are not asking them to sign up to the IFF or 0.7 percent of (GDP in) aid. They are not going to do that and they've made that clear right from the very beginning. Neither are we asking them to reverse the position on Kyoto. There's no way the Americans are going to do that.''

Britain is still hopeful of a deal at next month's summit of the Group of Eight wealthiest nations in Gleneagles, Scotland on debt relief for the world's poorest countries.

"We are at the beginning of the process,'' Blair was quoted as saying. "This is the first proper (opportunity to) sit down and talk about this and go through it all in a lot of detail between myself and the president. So I'd wait till you get to Gleneagles before it's clear exactly what's going to happen.''

Source: CD/Agencies