Hmmm...........balanced?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/07/16/wgeight16.xml
Putin's criticism of Israel paves way for rift with US at the G8 summit By Alec Russell in St Petersburg (Filed: 16/07/2006)
The Middle East conflict threatened to plunge today's G8 summit of world leaders into crisis last night as President George W Bush and his Russian host took sharply opposing views of the escalating violence.
Mr Bush squarely blamed Hezbollah and Syria, one of the militant group's traditional backers, and remained staunchly uncritical of Israel - in stark contrast to Russia's President Vladimir Putin, who pointedly condemned America's close ally for its air strikes on Lebanon.
Presidents Bush and Putin make a poor job of hiding resentments
"The best way to stop the violence is for Hezbollah to lay down its arms and to stop attacking," Mr Bush said. "And therefore, I call on Syria to exert influence over Hizbollah."
Mr Putin, however, tempered his criticism of Hezbollah with condemnation of Israel, saying the abduction of the two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah guerrillas and the Israeli retaliatory air strikes were unacceptable. "In this context we consider Israel's concerns to be justified," he said, but added: "The use of force should be balanced."
The dissonance of the two leaders paved the way for a serious rift at the G8 summit's opening meetings today.
The Lebanese crisis has already hijacked the agenda and sharply reduced America's chances of securing international agreement on how to confront Iran over its nuclear programme. American officials were forced to concede that the two leaders had not even discussed the issue of United Nations sanctions against Teheran. Moscow has long opposed penalising Iran over its uranium enrichment programme.
Washington now faces the uncomfortable prospect of having to watch Russia, not America, take pole position at the talks, in view of its status as host, and because its stance is likely to prove more popular with other G8 nations. France has already forcefully condemned the Israeli retaliation.
Mr Putin said the G8 nations (the world's seven leading industrialised democracies and Russia) would issue a joint statement on the crisis, which leaders were expected to work on at last night's opening dinner. But officials were not confident that it would be more than a bland communiqué.
Stephen Hadley, Mr Bush's national security adviser, defended Washington against charges that it had not done enough to rein in Israel. "We are troubled by the violence and loss of life and so are the Israelis," he said.