June 3, 2003	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 2, 1424

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EVIAN (FRance), June 2: The world’s eight leading industrial nations insisted on Monday that their ailing economies were ready to bounce back this year and issued a stern warning to North Korea and Iran over nuclear weapons.

“There was unanimous confidence in our capacity for recovery and growth,” French President and Group of Eight (G8) summit host told reporters. “All conditions are reunited for recovery,” he said.

“There is a common opinion that the second part of the year will be the start of recovery,” said European Commission President Romano Prodi, who is also attending in his role as head of the European Union’s executive arm.

“The worst is over,” Prodi told reporters, adding that US President George W. Bush had told G8 partners that he did not want a weak dollar and that America would “not use the monetary weapon.”

“This message of cooperation should give tranquility to monetary markets,” Prodi insisted.

Despite the brave words, however, the state of most G8 economies remains grim, with Germany, France and Italy on the verge of recession and now facing another deadly enemy: deflation.

Japan, which has been in stagnation for years and the US is still waiting for a much anticipating post-Iraq war boost to its economy.

European governments denied that a rising euro, which has made eurozone exports more expensive on world markets, was an additional burden on their economies. The euro last month surged to its highest ever rate against the dollar since being launched in 1999.

Trade also topped the G8 meeting with leaders vowing to provide much-needed impetus to secure a World Trade Organization deal on liberalising global trade by the end of 2004.

They also said an accord on low-cost medicines for poor nations before WTO ministerial talks in Cancun, Mexico in mid-September.

IRAN, KOREA: In a tough warning on curbing the spread of weapons of mass destruction and terrorism, G8 leaders warned North Korea and Iran on their nuclear programmes.

A G8 statement said North Korea’s uranium and plutoniom programmes were a “clear breach of international obligations” and strongly urged Pyongyang “to visibly, verifiably and irreversibly dismantle any nuclear weapons programmes.”

The G8 voiced worries about “proliferation implications of Iran’s advanced nuclear programme” and said Tehran must accept tougher international controls. In related business, the G8 created a counter-terrorism agency which will provide money, expertise and training for the war on global terror.

Fears that terrorists could shoot down passenger aircraft with hand-held missiles led the G8 to approve tighter controls of such weapons.

Summit leaders also agreed to bolster security of radioactive materials to prevent them from being used by terrorists to build a radiological “dirty bomb.”

Bush and French President Jacques Chirac used the summit to paper over their feud over the Iraq war which pitted the US against G8 members France and Germany which strongly opposed the conflict.

“We want to look aheadnot become prisoners of the past,” said Chirac’s spokesperson Catherine Colonna.

In a bid to publicly cast off the Franco-American chill, Bush and Chirac held a joint press briefing with the US President saying he had sought the French leader’s advice on how to deal with Israeli-Palestinian violence.