The G8 summit ended yesterday with a pledge by five developing industrial nations to do their "fair share" to combat climate change, the central focus of this year's meeting on Germany's Baltic coast.
The promise came after a G8 pledge to give at least $60 billion to fight Aids, malaria and tuberculosis was dismissed as "old money" by aid agencies and "b******s" by activist Bob Geldof.
A day after G8 leaders pledged a "substantial" cut in earth-warming greenhouse gases by 2050, leaders of China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa said: "We remain committed to contribute our fair share to tackle climate change."
The statement, issued after a meeting with summit host Chancellor Angela Merkel, did not set any firm targets for slowing the rapid rise in carbon dioxide emissions, particularly in India and China. However the pledge is along the lines of the climate change deal agreed by G8 leaders to cut greenhouse gas emissions by "at least half" by 2050.
Thursday's agreement commits all G8 members to participating in UN-based climate talks for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, but fell short of German hopes for binding emissions reductions.
According to European Commission president José Manuel Barroso, US president George W. Bush told Indian and Chinese leaders in talks that G8 leaders "would do our best in a United Nations context" to fight global warming. "But for that we need you," he reportedly said.
Before the end of talks, G8 leaders signalled that the current Doha round of trade talks - stalled since last year over subsidies rows - could be wrapped up by the end of the year. "We had a significant discussion over lunch, and I don't think it is dead," said British prime minister Tony Blair.
The day's announcements were overshadowed by foreign policy disagreements over the future status of Kosovo and the planned US missile defence shield.
Russian president Vladimir Putin urged the US to join with Russia and European countries on a joint defence plan. "We are proposing to create a pool of European nations to assess missile threats through 2020 and agree on a joint action to fend off these threats," he said in an energetic press conference.
Mr Putin also dismissed a French proposal to decide the status of Kosovo after six months of consultations between leaders of Serbia and the breakaway Serb province.
Meanwhile two Irish anti-G8 activists were arrested by German police, along with over 1,000 other protesters, for "disturbing the summit".
One of the two, a 23-year-old Cork woman was released yesterday afternoon. The other, a 25-year-old man from Cavan, will be released at noon today. Neither will face any criminal charges.