WASHINGTON, May 18 (Reuters) – British Prime Minister David Cameron and new French President Francois Hollande clashed on Friday over the need for a financial transactions tax to fund growth but played down other differences over how to respond to the euro zone debt crisis.

Both leaders said after a first 35-minute meeting at the British ambassador’s residence in Washington that they backed measures to cut deficits and spur growth in Europe, glossing over differences between Hollande’s pro-growth stance and Cameron’s emphasis on reducing debt.

But Cameron said he would maintain his staunch opposition to a tax on financial transactions that Hollande backs as a way to raise revenue to boost growth.

“On the financial transactions tax, I’m very clear, we are not going to get growth in Europe or Britain by introducing a new tax that would actually hit people as well as financial institutions,” Cameron told reporters before his meeting at the elegant ambassador’s residence, designed by famous British architect Edwin Lutyens in the 1920s.

“I don’t think it is a sensible measure. I will not support it,” he said.

Cameron, keen to prevent damage to Europe’s leading financial centre in the City of London, has previously threatened to veto a European-wide financial transaction tax unless it was adopted globally, setting him on a collision course with France and Germany which back the idea.

A British government source said Hollande and Cameron agreed they had “different positions” on the financial transaction tax, also known as the Tobin tax.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama pressed Europe on Friday to shift toward a more pro-growth policy and away from austerity to tackle a crisis that threatens to push Greece out of the euro zone and send economic shockwaves worldwide.

Setting the tone for a weekend G8 summit, Obama made clear he was aligning himself with the new French president’s drive for more economic stimulus in the recession-plagued euro zone instead of emphasizing belt-tightening programs spearheaded by Germany.

Obama’s stance reflects his worries that the euro zone contagion, which threatens the future of Europe’s 17-nation single currency, could hurt the fragile U.S. economic recovery and his own re-election chances in November.

After White House talks with French President Francois Hollande, Obama said the two agreed that tackling the euro-zone crisis was “an issue of extraordinary importance, not only to the people of Europe, but also to the world economy.”

“We’re looking forward to a fruitful discussion later this evening and tomorrow with the other G8 leaders about how we can manage a responsible approach to fiscal consolidation that is coupled with a strong growth agenda,” Obama told reporters before heading to Camp David to host the summit’s opening dinner.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has insisted on the need for tough fiscal discipline to bring down suffocating debt levels across the euro zone, could find herself increasingly alone when leaders gather at the rustic presidential retreat in Maryland.

Reflecting growing frustration as Greece’s post-election turmoil shakes global markets, British Prime Minister David Cameron called on euro members for decisive action and said the Greeks must “make their minds up” whether to stay in the euro.

WASHINGTON, May 17 (Reuters) – British Prime Minister David Cameron will tell leaders of some of the world’s biggest economies on Friday that they must work together to stop the economic crisis afflicting the euro zone from spreading worldwide.

Cameron’s message to other Group of Eight leaders, who begin a summit on Friday at the U.S. presidential retreat of Camp David, Maryland, would be that “we need to work together to protect ourselves against global contagion from the economic crisis and to promote global trade,” an aide to Cameron said.

Clearly worried about the impact that the deteriorating euro zone situation and possibility of a Greek default could have on the weak British economy, Cameron has been increasingly vocal in urging Europe’s rulers to do more to quell the debt crisis.

Cameron, whose poll ratings have plunged at home as the British economy has slid back into recession, will push at the G8 for a “strong and united commitment to securing the economic recovery and to support job creation,” the aide said.

Cameron will speak out against protectionism and appeal for a trade liberalization drive to try boost the world economy.

In an article published on Friday, Cameron called for negotiations on an ambitious U.S.-European Union trade agreement to begin next year.

“Together, the EU and U.S. account for almost a third of global trade, so a deal with the U.S. could potentially be bigger than all the other EU trade deals on the table,” Cameron wrote in an opinion piece for PoliticsHome, a political website. ()

LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday he would hold talks with new French President Francois Hollande before an international summit this week, confident they would find “common ground” on how to tackle Europe’s economic crisis.

Like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Cameron has backed tough austerity policies to tackle Europe’s debt and deficit problems while the newly-elected Hollande has vowed to shift the focus to growth.

The different approaches go to the heart of the British political debate, where the opposition Labour Party has accused Cameron of cutting Britain’s deficit too fast and having no growth plan to revive the recession-hit economy.

Cameron, a centre-right Conservative who heads a two-year-old coalition government, refused to meet Hollande when he visited London in February during his election campaign while Labour leader Ed Miliband had lunch with the French Socialist.

Cameron, who has pushed through tough austerity measures to try to cut a big British budget deficit, said he spoke briefly to Hollande after his election victory this month.

“I look forward to having a longer bilateral (meeting) with him before the G8 starts this weekend,” he said, referring to a gathering of leaders of the Group of Eight leading economies at Camp David in the United States from May 18 to 19.

“I look forward specifically to discussing what more we can do to help in terms of European growth,” Cameron said.

LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Defense spending cuts are putting an increasing strain on relations between the United States and its European allies in NATO, sharpening transatlantic battles over issues ranging from financing Afghan security forces to missile defense.

European governments have slashed defense budgets in response to the economic crisis. Coupled with U.S. plans to cut $487 billion of its own projected defense spending over the next decade and shift its focus toward Asia, this will limit NATO’s capabilities and force it to scale back its ambitions.

With NATO leaders preparing to meet in Chicago on May 20-21 amid questions about the 63-year-old alliance’s focus after Afghanistan, money – and the shortage of it – will be the thread running through the summit discussions.

The fact that the United States spends more than 4 percent of gross domestic product on defense while Europe spends less than 2 percent “is certainly a cause of considerable discord within the transatlantic alliance,” said Michael O’Hanlon, a defense expert at Washington’s Brookings Institution think tank.

The U.S. government is pressing reluctant European allies to offer up roughly one third of the estimated $4 billion annual cost of financing Afghan security forces after 2014, when most foreign combat troops will have left and the Afghan forces will be the main stabilizing factor in Afghanistan.

European countries are also facing pressure to contribute more to a system to protect NATO states from missile attack.

President Barack Obama, hosting the summit in his hometown in an election year, will stress the unity of the 28-nation alliance. But Washington’s long-standing frustration at what it sees as Europeans shirking their duty to contribute more to their own defense is sure to grow.

LONDON (Reuters) – China is beset by a moral crisis, widespread corruption and lawlessness, leading millions of Chinese to seek solace in Buddhism, Tibet’s exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, said on Monday.

The Dalai Lama was in London to receive the $1.7 million Templeton prize for his work affirming the spiritual dimension of life.

Speaking to reporters before the award ceremony at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, he said millions of young Chinese were showing an interest in spirituality.

“Look at China now, the moral crisis, corruption – immense,” he said, adding that China had “no proper rule of law”.

A survey two years ago found that 200 million Chinese followed Buddhism, including many who followed Tibetan Buddhism, he said.

“Tibetan Buddhist culture I think (is of) immense benefit to millions of Chinese who are really passing through a difficult period like that,” he said.

In the most tumultuous upheaval in China’s leadership in decades, the Communist Party banished its most controversial politician, Bo Xilai, from its ranks in April and detained his wife over the murder of a British businessman.

LONDON/MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s military chief of staff said on Thursday that Moscow could carry out pre-emptive strikes on future NATO missile defense installations in Europe to protect its security – a stark warning against a system the Kremlin sees as a threat.

General Nikolai Makarov’s remark underlined Russian opposition to an anti-missile shield the United States and NATO are developing, an issue that will continue to strain relations after Vladimir Putin starts a six-year presidential term on Monday.

Makarov spoke at a conference where testy exchanges between the Russian hosts and U.S. and NATO officials pointed up the distance the old Cold War foes still have to go for a deal to cooperate on missile defense, an arrangement both say they want.

Washington says the missile defense system, due to be completed in four phases by about 2020 and including interceptor missiles based in Poland and Romania, is meant to counter a potential threat from Iran and presents no risk to Russia.

But a mistrustful Moscow says the West will gain the ability to shoot down Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in a few years, weakening Russia’s nuclear deterrent.

Makarov repeated Kremlin threats to deploy more missiles in southern and northwestern Russia for potential strikes against the installations and said Moscow could act pre-emptively if it saw the need.

“Decisions on the pre-emptive use of … attack components will be taken in the period of heightening tension,” he told the conference of government officials and experts.

LONDON/MOSCOW (Reuters) – NATO is hopeful of reaching a deal with Russia on missile defense despite opposition from the Kremlin to the alliance’s plans for a missile shield, Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Thursday.

However a conference in Moscow also on Thursday led to no agreement on the issue, with Russia using computer modeling to show how it believed the shield could threaten its security.

The dispute has slowed improvements in Russian-U.S. ties and is likely to remain an irritant after Vladimir Putin returns to the Kremlin next week for a six-year presidential term.

Washington says the missile defense system, due to be completed in four phases by roughly 2020, is meant to counter a potential threat from Iran. Moscow says the system will undermine Russia’s nuclear deterrent because it could also give the West the ability to shoot down Russian missiles.

Rasmussen made his remarks after talks in London with British Prime Minister David Cameron. Asked whether an agreement could be reached with Moscow, he said: “I’m hopeful that we can.”

The Secretary-General said a deal would not happen before a NATO summit in Chicago on May 20-21.

“We will continue our dialogue with Russia…after the Chicago meeting,” he told reporters.

LONDON, April 30 (Reuters) – Argentina’s new ambassador to London ambushed Britain’s foreign minister over the disputed Falklands Islands on Monday, asking him at a public meeting whether he was ready to “give peace a chance” by opening talks on the islands’ future.

Alicia Castro, formerly Argentina’s ambassador to Venezuela, took up her post in London in March, just as tensions escalated between Britain and Argentina 30 years after they went to war over the South Atlantic islands, known in Spanish as Las Malvinas.

Castro’s appointment to a post left vacant since 2008 is part of a drive by Buenos Aires to push the Falklands issue back up the international agenda.

Setting aside diplomatic niceties, Castro tackled British Foreign Secretary William Hague on the subject as he launched Britain’s annual world review of human rights at a ceremony attended by diplomats, journalists and rights activists in the opulent surroundings of Lancaster House in London.

“Seeing that the United Nations and the international community and a large group of Nobel prize winners urge both countries to (start) negotiations in order to find a pacific and permanent resolution, my question is: Are you ready for dialogue? Are we going to give peace a chance?” she asked as Hague took questions from the audience.

A flustered Hague, sensing that Castro was about to make a long statement, interrupted her several times, pressing her to ask a question before cutting her short with: “Thank you. That’s enough. Stop.”

President Cristina Fernandez has launched a wide-ranging diplomatic offensive to assert Argentina’s claims to the islands, accusing Britain of maintaining “colonial enclaves” and calling on London to open sovereignty talks.