London, July 13 (IANS): Key global issues such as climate change, trade and Iran could only be resolved by the inclusion in G8 of countries such as India, China, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico, according to British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Blair told the Guardian Thursday that multilateral deals can only be secured by allowing these countries to join the G8 as full members.

Blair said he was keen to press for work to be accelerated on a successor to the Kyoto treaty on climate change, a process he believes would be greatly enhanced by the inclusion of China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico.

He said: "There is no way we can deal with climate change unless we get an agreement that binds in the US, China and India. We have got to get an agreement with a binding framework - of that I am in no doubt at all."

"There is no point in thinking Congress is going to enter a binding commitment to change the structure of the US economy without China and India being part of the deal."

Leaders of the five developing countries will attend the forthcoming summit at St Petersburg for an "outreach session", but Blair is pressing for the arrangement to be made more formal.

The newspaper noted that Brazil and India were key players in the trade talks, and added that a crisis meeting had been planned in St Petersburg this weekend in an attempt to give the talks a political push.

"The leaders need to say to the negotiators: 'Here is the outline of a deal, now go away and sort out the details'," the prime minister said.