Novo-Ogaryovo, Russia ? British Prime Minister Tony Blair won Russia’s support Monday for his initiatives to write off all debt to African countries and reduce global warming, proposals to be presented at a Group of Eight summit.

Beginning a European trip to push the plan, Blair said the weekend agreement by finance ministers of the leading industrial nations to scrap $40 billion in debt owed by the world’s poorest countries was a “good omen” for the July 6-8 summit in Scotland.

“I think there is a real prospect of progress on Africa and on climate change,” Blair said after talks with Putin at his residence outside Moscow.

Putin, whose country has ratified the Kyoto Protocol on cutting greenhouse gas emissions and expressed readiness to forgive African debt, offered broad backing for Blair’s initiatives.

“We fully support the ideas of the British leadership and in particular of the prime minister … for the upcoming summit,” Putin told a joint news conference.

Blair has made action on climate change a priority for the G-8 summit. President Bush opposes the Kyoto Protocol and the U.S. administration questions scientists’ views that man-made pollutants are causing temperatures to rise.

Putin and Blair did not discuss African debt in detail at the news conference. But Russia’s finance minister indicated in comments broadcast Sunday that Russia is ready to forgive African debt left over from the Soviet era, saying it couldn’t be paid back for years anyway.

G-8 finance ministers agreed Saturday to immediately wipe out all debt that 18 countries, many in sub-Saharan Africa, owe to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the African Development Bank.

Eager to join world economic groups and earn respect in the West, Russia has already agreed to write off billions of dollars in Iraqi debt.

“I would like to point out that in absolute figures concerning the volume of write-off of debts, Russia ranks third after Japan and France,” Putin said.