G8 SUMMIT: The most startling image perhaps of the G8 summit which drew to a close yesterday was the sight of anti-globalisation protesters decrying the gathering as a conspiracy of rich nations. Chris Stephen reports from St Petersburg
In fact, two days of argument and recrimination have seen the eight industrial democracies fail to agree on almost everything.
Fresh from rows over trade and energy, world leaders yesterday used their final session to plunge into argument about whether a peacekeeping force should be sent to southern Lebanon.
Yes, said the United States, Britain, France and Italy, whose prime minister, Romano Prodi, insisted it would be 8,000-strong. British prime minister Tony Blair said the force was the only way to stop a tit-for-tat war and also show that the G8 declaration calling for an end to the fighting, issued on Sunday, had teeth. "If we can't get such a force, then it's very difficult to see how we can restore the calm." But Russian president Vladimir Putin insisted no decision had been taken, and, mindful of China, the only permanent member of the Security Council excluded from the G8, said only the UN could take such a decision. "There are no decisions about peacekeeping forces. We cannot give instructions to the Security Council," he said.
The split echoed the tone of a summit that has been as stormy and overcast as the unseasonal weather which has brought thunderstorms and fierce rain to the former Tsarist palace at Strelna where it took place.
Possibly distracted by the strain of it all, US president George Bush saw an expletive he issued, while talking to Blair during a morning photo call, broadcast to the media on a microphone he had forgotten to switch off. "The irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hizbollah to stop doing this s**t and it's over," he said.
US and British officials refused to speculate on suggestions that "they" referred to the Russians, but it is clear that the Middle East fighting has brought a fresh rift between Russia and the West. America accuses Iran and Syria of sponsoring the current violence, and wants Moscow, which supplies both with weapons, to pressure them to stop. Russia, meanwhile, is unhappy that America is not putting pressure on Israel, which it in turns supplies with weaponry, to halt the air strikes.
Complicating discussions over the continuing fighting were two bitter trade disputes that the summit failed to solve.
The first, America's refusal to let Russia into the World Trade Organisation (WTO), was a deal Mr Putin had banked on to show his people a solid success as chairman of the G8. US officials have pushed back until next March the time by which they think Russia will be ready to join the WTO, a timetable that may be optimistic after Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia would not join "at any price".
Meanwhile, Europe's energy spat with Moscow is unresolved, with Russia sticking to its refusal to sell chunks of state-owned Gazprom and the Europeans giving no indication of selling Gazprom its pipelines.
Aid organisations, too, launched an offensive against what many feel is "window dressing" on the issues of the Third World despite an intensive lobbying campaign at the summit.
Poverty, education and the fight against HIV/Aids were all mentioned in the final communique, as well as an intention to discuss pollution, but no new initiatives were agreed.
"By downplaying the fight against poverty, the G8 ignored the world's most critical crisis," said Oxfam spokesman Max Lawson. "Ending poverty is a race against time - this year the G8 were jogging in circles."
Mr Putin, looking as grim as the grey sky over the Gulf of Finland outside, said progress on economic issues had been halted by the crisis in the Lebanon. "Everything was knocked to one side to some extent by events in the Middle East."
For some observers, the summit simply emphasised a growing rift between Russia and the other economies: While the Western nations struggle to liberalise trade, Mr Putin's Russia is pushing the other way, with key sections of the economy being re-nationalised and brought under control, along with politics and the media.
In this atmosphere, with Moscow insisting on keeping state control of the economy, the possibility of future progress on trade may be limited, the more so as key economic powers such as China and India continue to be excluded from G8 membership.
For ordinary Russians, moreover, there was disappointment at seeing this summit, massively hyped in preceding weeks, achieve so little.
"People here wanted these guys to solve these problems," said Galina, a St Petersburg journalist.
"This summit did not live up to these expectations."