CNNPolitics.com
updated 4 hours, 21 minutes ago

Bush lowers expectations for his final G-8 summit

Story Highlights

• Short-term economic solutions not in the cards, president says
  
• Leaders of top industrialized nations to meet in Toyako, Japan
  
• Bush says he'll press others to keep promises to aid developing world
  
• G-8 leaders to meet representatives of seven African countries Monday

From Elaine Quijano
CNN White House Correspondent

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush heads to Japan on Saturday for his final G-8 summit of world leaders as the global economy slumps, energy prices soar and food shortages loom in the developing world.

Bush says he will press other leaders of the Group of Eight industrialized nations to follow through on their commitments from earlier summits, but has warned there is nothing he or anyone else can do in the short term about oil prices.

"It took us a while to get into the energy situation we're in and it's going to take us a while to get out of it," he said Wednesday in an appearance at the Rose Garden to preview his trip.

He continued to advocate more drilling in protected areas of the U.S. as a medium-term fix for skyrocketing fuel costs.

"Ultimately, of course, we're going to transition away from hydrocarbon. But we're now just in a transitional period and we need more oil to be able to do so," he said.

Bush's main economic goal at the summit in Toyako, on Japan's northern Hokkaido island, may be defensive, said CNN analyst David Gergen, former adviser to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton.