EVIAN, France — World leaders projected confidence today that they will turn around their weak economies and pledged cooperation on global issues from terrorism to Iraq's rebuilding of Iraq.
President Bush and the other leaders were determined to present a united front as a way to begin healing the bitter divisions exposed by the Iraq war.
Even Bush and his biggest European foe on Iraq, French President Jacques Chirac, had warm words of praise for each other. Bush declared that "a united Europe working with America can do a lot of good."
Bush left the summit a day early today for a round of talks aimed at getting stalled Middle East peace talks back on track. He planned to participate in a three-way summit in Aqaba, Jordan, with new Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
In contrast to the harmony inside the economic meetings, riot police waged pitched battles in the early hours today with thousands of protesters intent on destruction and looting in nearby Geneva. However, with the resumption of the workweek later today, Geneva, Lausanne and the French town of Annemasse, the main flashpoints of the weekend demonstrations, were quiet.
Bush and the other leaders, meeting at a posh Alpine resort on Lake Geneva far away from the demonstrations, said they saw hopeful signs that current economic troubles in the United States, Europe and Japan would be banished soon by stronger economic growth.
The leaders issued joint statements today, pledging greater coordination to bolster the flagging economy, fight global terrorism and halt the spread of nuclear, chemical and other weapons of mass destruction. As part of the effort on terrorism, the leaders issued a joint action plan to keep shoulder-fired-missiles out of the hands of terrorists.
Chirac called the discussions on the global economy "very positive" and said the leaders expressed a "message of confidence" that their countries could achieve higher growth rates.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said economic reform efforts by European countries such as France and Germany were on the agenda.
"There is a general recognition that if we don't change and reform our economies quickly, we are not going to be able to survive with the same living standards in the modern world," Blair said.
All leaders at the annual Group of Eight summit — composed of the world's seven wealthiest nations and Russia — asserted they were putting divisions over Iraq behind them.
Bush, with a smiling Chirac sitting next to him, praised the French president as a "man who knows a lot about the Middle East" and said he wanted to seek his advice before heading to the region for talks with the leaders of Israel and various Arab countries.
A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that in their private meeting Bush told Chirac, "The Iraq situation was difficult, but it is time to move on."
Chirac's spokeswoman Catherine Colonna told reporters that the French and U.S. presidents sought in their private discussions to ensure "that French-U.S. ties are not a prisoner to the past. The question now is to see how peace can succeed in Iraq."
Bernd Mueztelburg, foreign policy adviser to German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, said the talks among the leaders over Iraq demonstrated "a common will not just to look ahead, but also to politically stabilize the country and rebuild the economy."
None of the G-8 nations made new offers at the Evian summit to support the rebuilding effort financially. The United States is planning to hold a pledging conference among rich nations later this year.
While four of the G-8 countries — France, Germany, Russia and Canada — opposed the Iraq war, Chirac said that there was common agreement now that the new U.N. Security Council resolution would serve as the basis for rebuilding Iraq.
The Bush administration won a victory when those countries dropped their opposition to giving the United States and Britain a broad mandate in a U.N. resolution, overwhelmingly approved last month, to rebuild Iraq with only minimal U.N. input.
Chirac called the new resolution a "solid base" for going forward with Iraq reconstruction.
The opening day of the G-8 summit Sunday had been devoted to discussions among a much larger group of 11 of the world's major developing countries including China, Brazil, India, Mexico and Malaysia joining a number of African nations.
The African countries won commitments from the United States and Europe to greatly increase the money they will provide to fight AIDS in poor countries with European countries saying they would match America's tripling of resources contained in a new $15 billion, five-year AIDS law Congress passed at Bush's urging.
Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a reconciliation meeting Sunday in St. Petersburg, Russia, where they celebrated ratification of a major nuclear arms agreement and proclaimed their close friendship. "Strange as it may sound," Putin said, the United States and Russia have even strengthened ties — a point that Bush was happy to echo.
"We will show the world that friends can disagree, move beyond disagreement and work in a very constructive and important way to maintain the peace," Bush said.
The two leaders signed the recently ratified treaty that requires both sides to reduce their nuclear arsenals.
The summit will end on Tuesday with the reading of a chairman's statement by Chirac and a round of news conference by the other leaders.