WORLD peace and the future of the planet are threatened by the overwhelming power of an “aggressive and unilateralist America” run by a right-wing President with close connections to the oil industry.

Such is the view of Michael Meacher, who until being sacked, or “liberated” as he put it, in last week’s reshuffle had spent six years as Environment Minister. During his period in office he was described as Tony Blair’s green fig leaf, a lone voice supporting environmental policies or even the last Bennite in government.

In an interview with The Times, Mr Meacher insisted that none of this was really true. He is his own man and a supporter of the Prime Minister and of a Government that has worked as a team since coming to power to “embed a fresh approach to sustainable development”.

His charity does not, however, extend across the Atlantic to George Bush, with whom Mr Blair has forged a close alliance in the war against terrorism. Mr Meacher’s departure from the Government comes as the Kyoto Protocol for tackling climate change is “on the cusp” of international ratification, despite the US President’s opposition.

He said that America’s stated reasons for refusing to sign up are “ridiculous and wrong-headed”. The cost of adhering to the protocol, he said, would be between 0.1 and 1 per cent of the extra growth predicted for America by 2010. “They say, what about the rest of the world like China and India? But those coutries will only come on board if the rich nations show they mean business.”

Instead, he suggested that a more sinister motive may lie behind Washington’s decision as he highlighted the new US investments in oil production in Africa and South America. “Everyone knows that George Bush is a Texas oil man, his family have long-term connections, nearly all his senior advisers and closest aides have connections to a very, very powerful oil industry,” he said. “I think that is a relevant consideration. They believe in the oil business and the traditional way of generating power and if they gain personally that is a bonus.”

Mr Meacher said that these interests played their part in the decision to go to war in Iraq: “America is pursuing future oil supplies with extreme vigour, so it is difficult, when you look at Iraq, which has the second biggest oil reserves in the world, not to think it was a factor.”

He did not, contrary to reports at the time, oppose military action. “What persuaded me was the idea that getting rid of a murderous, barbarous, genocidal regime responsible for millons of deaths overrode anything else,” he said. “It was a justification for military action.” He added: “It was not the reason why we went to war. My view is that we went to war because America wanted to establish a political and military platform in the Middle East, it saw a need for oil and of course it wished to support Israel. Weapons of mass destruction, if they existed, even on the most threatening predictions, were certainly not going to put Europe or the US at risk. But Tony Blair took the view that if you are a close ally you have more influence than if you are a protagonist. That is a view which still prevails. The problem is that Bush is not Clinton.”

Mr Meacher is deeply concerned about the US “occupation” of Iraq and the sidelining of the UN, suggesting that Mr Blair should start puting some distance between himself and Washington. “The biggest political problem in the world today is the overwhelming power of the US. That is very serious for the world order. How you deal with an aggressive unilateralist like America is a problem for us all, but there are no easy answers.”

Mr Meacher denied that Britain had been too soft on America on Kyoto, saying that Mr Blair had been taken by surprise by Mr Bush’s decision to oppose ratification and had since tried to bring the US “on board” for a programme to reduce fossil-fuel emissions through technological change.

Since being sacked last week, however, he has focused his efforts on the looming government decision on allowing commericial production of genetically modified crops. Mr Meacher said that the GM food lobby had already won its battle in America, partly because of the links between the Washington Adminstration and firms like Monsanto.

Mr Meacher talked about the “happy days” spent negotiating with his EU counterparts on the environment, suggesting that Europe, which has risked a trade war with the US by opposing GM food, could be a bulwark against Washington. He promised to be a “sympathetic but critical friend” of the Government, saying it had done much good for the NHS and education but should pay more attention to a traditional Labour agenda of tackling poverty and improving equality.

From his new position on the backbenches, however, he will have already discovered that his views about Mr Bush chime with those of many of his colleagues. “My view is that we should not get too close to America. It is an important friend and ally, but in the end we should make our judgments about where the public interest lies and we should take note of public opinion in that as well.”

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