By Tom Armitage

BERLIN, May 22 (Reuters) - A groundswell of public support for measures to combat climate change could bolster German Chancellor Angela Merkel's hopes of getting a deal to fight the problem at next month's Group of Eight summit, an expert said.

Resistance from the United States appears to be hindering Merkel's push to get her colleagues in the group of industrialised nations to agree ambitious targets when they meet at a summit in Heiligendamm in northern Germany on June 6-8.

The head of the Geneva-based Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change told reporters on Tuesday he was optimistic that Merkel, a former environment minister, could negotiate a deal to reduce the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. "I am optimistic and one has to be optimistic," said IPCC head Rajendra Pachuari after taking part in a Berlin-based event to discuss development in Africa.

Pachuari, whose organisation recently released a report saying carbon dioxide emissions should be halved by 2050, said data showed the media and public were taking an interest in the issue, even if their leaders were not.

"If the public is concerned about something, then the leadership of these countries can't possibly remain immune to that kind of thinking," Pachuari said in response to a question about whether progress might be made in Heiligendamm. "I will be optimistic but who knows."

U.S. President George W. Bush, leader of the world's largest carbon emitter, told Reuters on Monday he hoped the G8 would be able to reach an agreement on some basic principles on how to confront the issue at the summit.

Germany wants G8 countries -- Britain, France, Germany, Canada, the United States, Japan, Italy and Russia -- to commit to halving climate-warming carbon emissions by 2050, back carbon trading and adopt firm targets on energy efficiency.

Washington wants all binding commitments on climate change proposed by Germany in a draft G8 communique seen by Reuters to be removed.

Pachuari stressed it was likely to be the world's poor and needy who would suffer the most from climate change. He added that developing countries should help each other to build the water tanks and irrigation systems needed in a warmer globe.

"Water scarcity and the problem of infrastructure will be compounded by the impact of climate change and it will be felt by the poorest and weakest on the (African) continent."

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