U.S. President George W. Bush said the United States will end subsidies to its farmers if Europe does the same, an offer the European Commission said it hoped would lead to a breakthrough at world trade talks later this year, Reuters reported. Asked in an interview broadcast on Monday if the United States would abolish farm subsidies if Europe did, Bush responded: "Absolutely, and I think we have an obligation to work together to do that". "Let's join hands as wealthy industrialised nations and say to the world, we are going to get rid of all our agricultural subsidies together," Bush told ITV1 television ahead of a summit of the Group of Eight rich nations in Scotland on Wednesday. "The position of the U.S. government is, we are willing to do so ... with our fine friends in the European Union," he said. European Union Farm Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel welcomed his comments, saying she hoped they would lead to deep reform of the U.S. Farm Bill in 2007 and progress on cutting subsidies at world trade talks in Hong Kong in December. --More 2307 Local Time 2007 GMT
