LONDON 19 December 2008 Britain hosts oil summit. Controversial invitees

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who says the world must move away from the "dictatorship of oil," hosts a summit of oil producer countries and consumers on Dec 19. The debate will center on oil prices and what might be done to prevent another spike in the market of the sort that prompted a surge in global inflation in 2008. Informal invitations have been issued. At least one invitee, Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi, could attract protesters to the conference: Dec 21 is the 20th anniversary of the PanAm Flight 103 bombing, for which Tripoli later accepted responsibility.

If Gaddafi attends, it will be his first official visit after years of diplomatic isolation.

Another controversial figure, Venezuelan President Hugo Hugo Chávez, a close ally of Russia and enthusiast for socialist revolution in South America, has also been invited. There is a report that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, has been blackballed because of Western anger over his nuclear ambitions.

The ongoing war of words between the Iranian president and United States President George W. Bush would spell a diplomatic nightmare for Brown if Ahmadinejad, president of one of the world's major oil-producing nations, uses diplomatic means to force the British prime minister's hand. Bush, who loses his job on Jan 20, could be accompanied by the US president-elect. The US election is Nov 4.

Brown, whose leadership of the British Labour Party is vulnerable, sees the event as a chance to co-ordinate the world’s response to rising oil demand while proving to a domestic audience he is taking action to hold down fuel prices. According to the Financial Times, Brown wants the summit, which will be held two days after an OPEC meeting in Algeria, to move forward on ideas presented at the oil summit in Jeddah in June. The Saudi summit discussed ways to diversify the world’s energy needs and to make oil markets more transparent. OPEC often complains that speculators are responsible for erratic oil prices, and want action to be taken against speculation.

The Saudi summit was considered by some to have yielded few results. The FT notes that Brown's objectives include some kind of understanding that oil-producing countries should open up their fields to more foreign investment in exchange for Western countries opening up their energy markets for investment by oil producing countries, including in the development of renewables.

The Libyan leader, who travels with female bodyguards, prefers to stay in a black Bedouin tent, which has recently been pitched in government-owned gardens in Paris and Brussels. Sep/08

RELATED READING:

Brown says producers and consumers must try to fight high oil prices (Reuters 26 Sep 2008)
http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKTRE48P6J220080926?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0

Gaddafi and Chávez invited to oil summit (FT 8 Sep 2008)
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7d16a514-7dce-11dd-bdbd-000077b07658.html