G8 leaders face packed agenda on summit's last day

ST PETERSBURG, Russia - Leaders of the major world powers face a packed agenda including trade talks and a possible statement on world oil prices on Monday, the last day of a G8 summit overshadowed by violence in the Middle East.

Sunday's proceedings were dominated by high diplomacy as leaders met a pressing need to formulate a response to the escalating violence in the Middle East, where Israel has bombed Lebanon in retaliation for attacks by Hizbollah militants.

Meetings on Monday should cover missed ground, producing a possible comment on high world oil prices to calm volatile markets and on the standoff over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The presence of the leaders of five key developing countries invited to the summit in Russia's second city of St. Petersburg - Brazil, India, China, Mexico and South Africa - will force stalled world free trade negotiations back on to the agenda.

The G8 powers have asked their trade negotiators and World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy to broker a breakthrough on the stalled Doha round of talks.

Having called for a "concerted effort" to conclude the Doha round by the end of 2006, they will present their plans to the five developing nations on Monday.

Assistance to Africa, put at the top of last year's summit by British Prime Minister Tony Blair but initially ignored by Russia for this year's meeting, is to be discussed during a session on Monday to be attended by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and the African Union.

As the summit draws to a close, Russian host, President Vladimir Putin, will be able to reflect that the meeting had not cast a critical light on his rule.

Any criticism from US President George W. Bush or the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Japan or Italy about a rolling back of democracy in Russia has been kept securely behind the scenes.

Putin, the first Russian leader to host the annual gathering of the Group of Eight industrialised leaders, wanted the summit to be a showcase for his nation's newfound confidence as a booming oil and gas producer.

"Russia is satisfied with the results of our work, all of our goals have been reached," a business-like Putin told a midnight briefing late on Sunday after the day's talks.

Putin's aides did fail to clinch an agreement on joining the World Trade Organisation to coincide with the G8, but the crisis in the Middle East allowed the Kremlin leader to focus on statesmanship at the summit venue in a tsarist-era palace.

And the mass anti-capitalism protests that have become regular affairs at G8 meetings were notable by their absence in St. Petersburg - a consequence, the few protesters who made it said, of strong-arm tactics by the police.

- REUTERS