ITALY - GENOA - JULY 2001

The G8 promised decisive action to combat poverty, especially in Africa. A G8 Africa plan was mooted.

While agreeing that the world economy looked well placed to recover from a sharp slowdown, leaders failed to secure an accord on the environment.

CANADA - KANANASKIS - JUNE 2002

In line with year-old promises, the leaders drew up a new development package for Africa, but the Africa Action Plan offered a lot of advice and little in the way of cash.

FRANCE - EVIAN - JUNE 2003

The G8 nations focused on the need to press ahead with structural reforms and greater flexibility in rich economies despite resistance, highlighted by public sector strikes in host country France.

They sought to draw a line under bitter transatlantic differences over the Iraq conflict, which half the G8 opposed, saying all now agreed the time had come to reconstruct Iraq.

UNITED STATES - SEA ISLAND, GEORGIA - JUNE 2004

The summit agreed to extend a debt relief programme for poor countries, but fell short of demands for a total write-off of loans owed by African nations to multilateral lending agencies.

G8 leaders said they would extend the Highly Indebted Poor Countries initiative, under which poor states can write off some of their debt, for 2 years beyond its expiry in December 2004.

They also stressed the need to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict as part of an initiative for political and economic reform in the broader Middle East.

UNITED KINGDOM - GLENEAGLES - JULY 2005

Leaders of the G8 said they would boost aid spending on Africa. But aid agencies argued there was little new money in the pledge from the summit in Scotland and accused the leaders of delaying the increases.

G8 leaders announced they would more than double aid to Africa by 2010, boosting spending by US$25 billion a year from then.

They also said G8 nations and other donors would increase total aid for all developing countries by about US$50 billion a year by 2010.

The G8 declared global warming required urgent action, but set no measurable targets for reducing the greenhouse gases that trigger it and so contribute to climate change.

China and the G8

The first handshake between China and G8 was at the 2003 G8 Evian Summit, attended by President Hu Jintao. It marked a breakthrough in Sino-G8 diplomacy.

China also took part in dialogues at last year's G8 Summit in Gleneagles of Britain.

This year's St. Petersburg summit is the third occasion at which top Chinese officials have been part of the dialogue between the G8 members and major developing countries.