Blair pledges to confront Putin on missiles at G8

As the row threatened to overshadow the G8 summit in Germany, the Prime Minister revealed he would have a oneonone meeting with President Putin to warn it was not in Moscow's interests to have "scratchy" relations with the West.

At his final and possibly most important G8 before leaving office in three weeks, Mr Blair also predicted he could get George Bush to sign up to a binding UN plan to tackle global warming.

The meeting of the world's richest nations began in the Baltic resort of Heiligendamm with diplomats admitting they were still struggling to find agreement on the key issues of climate change, Africa and trade.

But Mr Blair made plain he wanted to use the margins of the summit to tackle the issue of Russia's recent threats over a US missile defence plan. "It would be very sensible for the Russians to give reassurance on that," he told the BBC.

The US missile programme was designed to deal with the threat from rogue states rather than Russia, he added. "What I'll do certainly when I meet President Putin is just have a frank conversation about the state of the relationship, between not simply Britain, but Europe and Russia," he said.

Earlier, the Prime Minister also issued a clear warning to Moscow that its threats would backfire badly because they would strengthen rather than weaken ties between Eastern Europe and the US.

"A lot of people in Europe are worried about what is happening [in Russia]. One thing I'm sure of is that ultimately it won't divide Europe. Europe is seeing the benefits of the transatlantic alliance," he told the Guardian.

Mr Blair also pledged to raise Britain's request to extradite former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoy over the murder of Alexander Litvinenko. "We have got to try and resolve it, we know what issues the Russians have but we can't have someone murdered on British soil in that way and nothing happen, so it is a discussion we will have to have," said Mr Blair.

But Mr Blair said that he was confident he could persuade the United States to agree to a "substantial" cut in global greenhouse gases, with a target set within a UN framework.

Amid high security following violent demonstrations by anti-globalisation protesters, the summit began with British officials warning that talks could go right to the wire on the most vexed topics. Mr Blair was set to join forces with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to try to get a deal pinning down the rich nations on aid and HIV in Africa, as well as securing a first-ever target on climate change. All are crucial to Mr Blair's bid to trumpet a "legacy" of his 10 years in power."

Mr Blair said he wanted a commitment to a 50 per cent cut in carbon emissions by 2050 on 1990 levels. Contrary to what critics had claimed, he also said the US would feed its own climate change talks into a UN process.

"We need a global agreement that includes all the main players, including China and America, and at the heart of that there has to be a global target for a substantial cut in emissions. I believe it is possible to get all that way," he said.