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A miner on strike stands in front of a burning barricade on the A-66 motorway, on the first day of a strike to protest the government's spending cuts in the mining sector, in Pola de Lena, near Oviedo, northern Spain, May 23, 2012. Spain's economy is contracting for the second time since late 2009 and four years of stagnation and recession have pushed unemployment above 24 percent, the highest rate in the European Union. REUTERS/Eloy Alonso

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Members of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels fly over the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan as part of the 25th annual Fleet Week celebration in New York, May 23, 2012. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

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Shreen Mohammad sits with other recruits during a military exercise at the Kabul Military Training Center (KMTC) in Kabul March 28, 2012. A landmark NATO summit in Chicago endorsed an exit strategy that calls for handing control of Afghanistan to its own security forces by the middle of next year but left questions unanswered about how to prevent a slide into chaos and a Taliban resurgence after allied troops are gone. Picture taken March 28, 2012. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani (AFGHANISTAN - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY SOCIETY) ATTENTION EDITORS: PICTURE 18 OF 27 FOR PACKAGE 'AFGHAN ARMY RECRUIT'

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Japan PM: Emissions-goal base year is current levels

TOYAKO, Japan | Tue Jul 8, 2008 2:57am EDT

TOYAKO, Japan (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said on Tuesday the base year for a goal of at least halving global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 -- agreed on by Group of Eight leaders on Tuesday -- was "current levels".

That would appear to be at odds with the position of the European Union and climate change activists, who insist that base year should be 1990.

Fukuda also said the G8 rich nations had agreed to set "ambitious midterm targets" for cutting their own emissions in order to achieve the long-term goal.

"To achieve an absolute reduction in emissions, G8 countries will each set ambitious midterm targets," Fukuda told reporters at the luxury hotel where the G8 leaders were holding their annual summit.

(Reporting by Chisa Fujioka; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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