President George Bush was verbally slammed by Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, who said any of the top contenders for the new U.S. presidential term would be better than Dubya. Well better in the fight against climate change anyway.

While Bush has repeatedly blocked efforts to enforce greenhouse gas emissioni caps, Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton and John McCain are all for the idea and have committed to doing so should they inherit the Oval Office.

"The trend is on the right side, but there is a lot of work to do," Barroso said of the outlook for U.S. policy on fighting global warming during a seminar on climate change and energy security in the Norwegian capital."Any of the candidates: Mr. Obama, Mrs. Clinton or John McCain, will be more committed to combating climate change than the present administration," Barroso said in answer to a question.

Conveniently enough, Bush will leave his post in January 2009 and climate talks to discuss a global emission cap are scheduled for late 2009 in Copenhagen.

» Reuters