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About Page	Angela Merkel: Chinese Jack up the Food Price by drinking too Much Milk(Open)
Title	Merkel to Urge G-8 to Press China, India to Cut Oil Consumption
Commented by	User:Baojie
Date	2008/07/06 12:30:28 PM EDT
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Merkel to Urge G-8 to Press China, India to Cut Oil Consumption

By Brian Parkin

July 2 (Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she wants the Group of Eight leading industrial nations to raise pressure on developing economies such as China and India to cut their oil consumption in a bid to ease surging energy prices.

Merkel plans to urge G-8 leaders meeting in Japan next week to agree on ``key points for reducing oil consumption by developing nations, she said today in an interview with N24 television. Proposed measures include adding pressure to reduce subsidies and improve energy efficiency, she said.

Oil consumption is ``unnecessarily subsidized in the developing world, Merkel said, adding that G-8 states also need to address global consumption. ``How much output is possible? Do we need to help producers with investment or plant? Do we have enough refineries? she said.

Summits of oil consumers and producers in Saudi Arabia and Madrid last month underscored differences over the causes of and cures for oil prices that have risen 48 percent this year. Concern Iran's nuclear program may prompt an Israeli attack, disrupting Gulf oil supplies, helped send oil to a record $143.67 on June 30.

In Jeddah on June 22, U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown proposed a ``new deal with producing nations, offering them investment opportunities in the West in return for greater access to untapped reserves.

Two days before the meeting in Jeddah, China, the world's second-biggest energy consumer, sought to curb oil consumption by raising gasoline and diesel prices by 17 percent and increasing the costs of electricity.

China and India are ``simply not doing enough to promote more efficient use of oil, Claudia Kemfert, chief energy analyst at the Berlin-based DIW economic institute, said in an interview on June 22. ``Subsidies have to be slashed to curb consumption -- we have to get China and India on board.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Parkin in Berlin at bparkin@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: July 2, 2008 11:48 EDT

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