The Group of Eight nations urged Iran and North Korea to step back from moves that threaten international security.
The G8, at a summit north of Toronto, also pressed Israel and the Palestinians to work for direct peace talks, and said conditions in Gaza under an Israeli blockade were ‘not sustainable and must be changed.’
The G8's final communique welcomed the new START treaty between Russia and the US aimed at cutting nuclear weapons, but said atomic proliferation among states and extremist groups remained a grave threat.
The G8, which comprises the US, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia, singled out Iran and called on all nations to fully implement new UN sanctions on Tehran over its atomic program, which Western nations fear is aimed at producing weapons.
The G8 called on Iran to demonstrate that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes as Tehran maintains, and said it remained open to talks with Iranian officials.
The G8 also formally 'deplored' the March attack on a South Korean naval vessel, which killed 46 sailors, and blamed North Korea for an incident it said 'is a challenge to peace and security in the region and beyond.'
The G8 urged both Israel and the Palestinians to keep working toward to direct peace talks, and expressed regret over the 31 May incident off Gaza that saw nine pro-Palestinian activists killed when Israeli commandos stormed an aid flotilla, earning international condemnation.
The group welcomed Israel's decision to set up an independent public commission to investigate the incident, and urged Israel to fully implement a decision to begin relaxing the blockade imposed on Hamas-ruled Gaza some three years ago.
The group also called on Myanmar's military rulers to free political prisoners, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and urged both Kyrgyzstan and Sudan to be careful as they negotiate ethnic tensions and political transitions in coming months.
G8 leaders said yesterday they would spend $5bn over five years for mothers and their newborns in Africa, shying away from bold aid pledges to the world's poor after failing to meet previous targets.
G20 leaders turned their attention to the fragile worldwide recovery and financial reforms.
There are deep divisions with Washington urging the Europeans not to end stimulus packages and cut deficits too quickly.
The leaders are also openly at odds over a proposed bank tax with the EU and the US in favour of such a tax as a hedge against future bank bailouts, while Canada, Australia and China oppose it.
All agree that financial reforms are necessary but the unity and co-operation among the leaders that existed when the recession bit hard, seems to have evaporated now that a global recovery is under way.
Protestors clash with police in Toronto
Protestors the G20 summit in Toronto smashed shopfronts and wrecked a police car, while riot police donned gas masks in anticipation of an escalation of violence.
Masked protestors smashed windows of a bank branch and other buildings, including a Starbucks coffee shop, and set a police car ablaze. Two media trucks were also damaged.
An Emergency Services spokeswoman said at least three people had been wounded in the protest, but that paramedics were unable to reach them due to the protest.
Demonstrators numbered in the thousands, while hundreds of police massed and authorities shut down public transit and blocked streets leading into the downtown core of the city.
Most protestors remained peaceful, with many bearing signs and chanting slogans aimed both at the G20 and police tactics.
Soon after the demonstrators arrived near the G20 barriers, groups of black-clad protestors appeared to separate themselves from the larger group and confronted the hundreds of police shadowing the march.
TV reports said protesters at the front of the march were hurling objects such as golf balls at police.
