Statement puts blame squarely on Hezbollah; Calls on Hezbollah to stop attacking Israel; Israel to use restraint
Group of Eight leaders told Hizbollah militants they must free abducted Israeli soldiers and immediately halt attacks on Israel to end an upsurge in Middle East violence.
In a statement from their summit in Russia, G8 leaders urged Israel to exercise "utmost restraint" in its offensive in Lebanon, but blamed the crisis squarely on "extremist elements" and put the onus on Hizbollah to stop it.
A carefully-worded text said an end to Israeli military operations and withdrawal of forces from Gaza were other conditions needed to "lay the foundation for a more permanent solution".
But it echoed support for Israel's right to self-defence voiced by the US, the Jewish state's main backer, and made no reference to criticism by G8 powers France and the European Union that Israel's bombing of Lebanon was excessive.
Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, the summit host, accused Israel of pursuing "other wider goals", but differences between Washington and its G8 partners were largely papered over in the statement.
The Middle East crisis forced its way to the top of G8 leaders' deliberations, relegating to the sidelines the formal agenda of securing energy supplies, boosting world trade talks and addressing the crisis over Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Agenda sidelined
Under pressure to respond on the Middle East, the G8 leaders closeted in a tsarist-era palace on the Gulf of Finland raced through documents on other pre-planned themes such as security of energy supply and sought to unblock world trade talks.
Differences on the merits of promoting nuclear energy and on how to tackle climate change were acknowledged. Russia conceded to European Union demands to support in principle transparent and open energy markets.
On trade, the G8 asked their negotiators and Pascal Lamy, the World Trade Organisation chief, to return to Geneva this week and broker a breakthrough on the stalled Doha round of trade talks within a month.
Leaders also approved documents on education, and on fighting infectious diseases. They renewed a pledge to fight the Aids virus, but offered no detailed plan on how they would fund the ambitious targets they have set.
Under pressure from Britain, G8 leaders agreed to review efforts to boost aid, cut debt and improve trading conditions for Africa at next year's meeting in Germany. Britain put assistance at the top of the agenda at the G8 summit it hosted in 2005 but this year's host Russia initially ignored the topic. - Reuters
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