G8 leaders to kick off 2010 summit in Canada
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Leaders from the Group of Eight (G8) will discuss global security, trade and financial governance when their 2010 summit starts near here Friday.
U.S. President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, British Prime Minister David Cameron and their counterparts would exchange views on crisis spending, as divisions emerged between European states and the United States.
The summit is held in Muskoka, a small town some 300 km north of Canada's largest city of Toronto.
There is a heavy police presence in the town while access to the highway leading to the meeting area is closed to anyone without accreditation.
The summit is also expected to focus on development aid in general with G8 leaders scheduled to talk to leaders from Haiti, Jamaica, Colombia and a group of African countries.
Haiti president Rene Preval, along with Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe will attend the summit to discuss drug trafficking and other security issues with G8 leaders.
G8 leaders will meet with heads of governments from seven African countries on development issues and the G8’s progress toward meeting the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals.
Ahead of the summit, the G8 has issued the Muskoka Accountability Report outlining commitments met and not met, with mixed results. Most donors fell short of targets to direct 0.51 percent of gross national income to overseas aid by 2010.
The G8, which evolved from the G7, consists of the world's eight leading industrialized nations: Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and Russia.
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