British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived late Sunday in Moscow to start a whirlwind tour for talks ahead of next month's summit of G8 leading industrial nations in Scotland. dpa reported Blair is due to have talks Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, then continue to to Berlin for talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. On Tuesday, Blair will have talks in Luxembourg with Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, to be followed by a meeting in Paris with French President Jacques Chirac. "These visits are all part of the prime minister's ongoing programme of personal discussions with the G8 leaders about G8 priorities", a Downing Street official said Friday. Talks in Berlin, Luxembourg and Paris are likely to be dominated by the current row over Britain's European Union rebate and the consequences of the rejection of the European constitution by voters in France and the Netherlands, observers said. E.U. leaders are gathering for a special summit in Brussels at the end of next week. The G8, comprising the United States, Canada, Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia, will hold its summit from July 6-8 in Gleneagles, Scotland. ---SP 0010 Local Time 2110 GMT
