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Chirac, Blair Head to Swiss Alps with Bono, Jolie for Government-Business Forum
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) - French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are among European leaders taking centre stage at the World Economic Forum, an annual meeting of the rich, powerful and famous.
Celebrities from rock star Bono to actress Angelina Jolie were also expected for five days of meetings starting Wednesday. Topping the agenda for the forum in this Swiss ski resort: how to more effectively fight poverty and AIDS in the developing world.
The forum has been a favourite of U.S. administration officials in recent years, including Vice-President Dick Cheney and former president Bill Clinton. This year's event will be dominated by European leaders, however, as key U.S. officials stay away because of changes underway in the Bush administration, organizers said.
Chirac will start things rolling with a preliminary speech Wednesday afternoon, and Blair is to deliver the keynote address as the forum formally opens in the evening.
Tight security - including an air force ready to shoot down unauthorized aircraft that stray too close to the 2,500 participants - has been set up to ensure the leaders can chat undisturbed in the resort's hotels and meeting centres - or on the ski slopes.
"Taking responsibility for tough choices" is the theme for this year's meetings, organized into a tightly packed choice of 220 sessions from breakfast time until midnight. Many more meetings involving national presidents, prime ministers and business leaders take place behind the scenes.
Among the toughest choices for participants will be selecting from the bewildering lists of discussions - many of which are held simultaneously and over meals.
They range from heavy debates on the world economy or an individual country's problems and prospects to more self-centred themes like "knowing your own mind."
A "cultural leaders dinner" on Friday gives participants a chance to meet with Richard Gere, who has campaigned for Tibetan rights, and Jolie, a goodwill ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, who has witnessed first-hand the problems of people fleeing persecution. Among other actors at the dinner will be Sharon Stone and Carole Bouquet as well as architects, musicians and other artists.
Bono, Clinton and Microsoft founder Bill Gates are to meet with presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria for a session on "The G-8 and Africa - Rhetoric or Action?"
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will speak Friday, and Jose Manuel Barroso - the new president of the European Commission - will get his first chance to address the world's business leaders on Saturday, organizers said.
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) - French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are among European leaders taking centre stage at the World Economic Forum, an annual meeting of the rich, powerful and famous.
Celebrities from rock star Bono to actress Angelina Jolie were also expected for five days of meetings starting Wednesday. Topping the agenda for the forum in this Swiss ski resort: how to more effectively fight poverty and AIDS in the developing world.
The forum has been a favourite of U.S. administration officials in recent years, including Vice-President Dick Cheney and former president Bill Clinton. This year's event will be dominated by European leaders, however, as key U.S. officials stay away because of changes underway in the Bush administration, organizers said.
Chirac will start things rolling with a preliminary speech Wednesday afternoon, and Blair is to deliver the keynote address as the forum formally opens in the evening.
Tight security - including an air force ready to shoot down unauthorized aircraft that stray too close to the 2,500 participants - has been set up to ensure the leaders can chat undisturbed in the resort's hotels and meeting centres - or on the ski slopes.
"Taking responsibility for tough choices" is the theme for this year's meetings, organized into a tightly packed choice of 220 sessions from breakfast time until midnight. Many more meetings involving national presidents, prime ministers and business leaders take place behind the scenes.
Among the toughest choices for participants will be selecting from the bewildering lists of discussions - many of which are held simultaneously and over meals.
They range from heavy debates on the world economy or an individual country's problems and prospects to more self-centred themes like "knowing your own mind."
A "cultural leaders dinner" on Friday gives participants a chance to meet with Richard Gere, who has campaigned for Tibetan rights, and Jolie, a goodwill ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, who has witnessed first-hand the problems of people fleeing persecution. Among other actors at the dinner will be Sharon Stone and Carole Bouquet as well as architects, musicians and other artists.
Bono, Clinton and Microsoft founder Bill Gates are to meet with presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria for a session on "The G-8 and Africa - Rhetoric or Action?"
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will speak Friday, and Jose Manuel Barroso - the new president of the European Commission - will get his first chance to address the world's business leaders on Saturday, organizers said.
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