A summit of the G8 main industrial powers limps to an anticlimactic close yesterday in the absence of US President George W. Bush, on a peacemaking trip to the Middle East.
The other seven leaders from Germany, Japan, Russia, France, Britain, Italy and Canada will wrap up the annual G8 gathering with an upbeat statement on prospects for a world economic recovery, to be delivered by French President Jacques Chirac.
PHOTO: AP
They will also pledge renewed vigor in the fight against terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
The three-day summit marked an edgy start to a long process of healing wounds opened up by the bitter rift over the US-led war in Iraq. Half the G8 opposed the war.
Bush and Chirac shook hands and had a courteous private meeting, but each stuck to different world orders, and the US leader left early without holding the customary news conference, leaving a sense of anticlimax among delegates.
In a surprise move, France announced late on Monday that all eight leaders had agreed, in response to the dollar's recent sharp fall, that currency stability was a key condition for growth and they would monitor market movements closely.
It appeared to be the strongest signal on currencies issued in the name of the G8 since central banks intervened jointly in September 2000 to support a weak euro.
But officials said the position on currencies, designed to calm market volatility after a 12 percent fall in the dollar against the euro this year, would not be put in writing.
Participants quoted Bush as saying he did not want a weak dollar and would not use the currency as an economic weapon.
Bush won an endorsement of his priority for the fight against the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical arms, if not of his policy of pre-emptive strikes against such threats.
The leaders demanded that North Korea and Iran, two countries' in Bush's so-called "axis of evil" along with pre-war Iraq, curtail their nuclear programs, accept intrusive inspections and renounce atomic weapons.
A G8 statement said WMD proliferation and terrorism were "the pre-eminent threat to international security." But it did not mention Bush's proposal to stop and seize shipments of suspected WMD and missile parts on sea and in the air.
And Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Bush had given his colleagues "a clear statement that the idea of an armed operation by American forces in Iran is completely without foundation."
Throughout the summit, the separate agendas of Bush and Chirac vied for ascendancy.
The French president invited an expanded cast of leaders from Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, all of whom coincidentally opposed the war in Iraq, to thrust development issues onto the table of the "rich men's club."
He challenged Bush to invite the major developing nations to next year's G8 in the US to keep the spotlight on issues such as fighting deadly epidemics, improving access to clean water and reducing Third World debt.
But on one issue significant for business confidence, the leaders appeared to have made scant progress. While reaffirming their commitment to conclude global trade liberalization talks on time by the end of 2005, they sidestepped all the transatlantic disputes that are holding up progress.
At a summit where each diplomatic gesture was carefully calibrated, Chirac caused mirth by disclosing after Bush left that he had been invited to the US -- by Norway.
Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik had asked him to a conference on fighting terrorism in September just before the annual UN General Assembly session, Chirac told reporters, and Bush had said he would be happy to meet him if he came.
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