G8 leaders condemn North Korea and Iran

HUNTSVILLE, CANADA // The leaders of the world's eight top industrial democracies yesterday condemned the alleged sinking by North Korea of a South Korean warship and called on Iran to do more to respect human rights. The countries - the US, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan and Russia - also called current restrictions on the flow of goods to Gaza "unsustainable." And they sketched out a five-year exit strategy on Afghanistan.

But the joint statement by the so-called Group of Eight powers (G8) did not go as far as some nations, including the United States and Japan, had wanted. The joint statement was released at the end of a meeting in Canada of the eight powers and before a larger group of 20 nations convenes that also includes fast-growing economies like China and India. The Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper told reporters at the end of the G8 talks that there was a consensus among world leaders that "we can't afford some sort of cataclysmic event" like the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. "We remain very engaged and very watchful of those situations," he said.

* Associated Press