Speaking at a final news conference following the G8 summit, Vladimir Putin said the industrialized nations had agreed that "the nuclear problems with Iran and North Korea should be resolved in a purely peaceful, diplomatic way."
The leaders of France, Germany, Britain, Japan, Canada, the United States, and Russia, who have gathered in Russia for their annual summit, adopted a joint statement on North Korea Sunday.
They condemned its missile test launches in early July as "jeopardizing peace, stability and security in the region and beyond" and urged to resume unconditionally the six-nation talks on the nuclear program, which have been frozen in the past six months.
The UN Security Council adopted a resolution Saturday barring imports and exports of materials that can be used in the production of weapons of mass destruction from and to North Korea.
On Saturday, the G8 leaders also supported the decision by the six countries working to resolve the nuclear dispute with Iran to return Tehran's "nuclear file" to the UN Security Council and urged it to respond to incentives made June 6.
The international mediators said that a lack of reply or a negative reply would lead to the UN Security Council resuming work on an Iran resolution, which had been frozen to enable negotiations with Iran.
Putin also said the G8 countries would continue coordinated efforts to curb the spread of mass destruction weapons and step up cooperation against terrorism.
The summit adopted a statement Sunday on the Strengthening the UN's Counter-Terrorism Program, urging the relevant bodies to step efforts to combat terrorism throughout the world.
"We observe that, too often states do not comply with their obligations under UN Security Council counter-terrorism resolutions," the statement said. "We call for the Council and its counter-terrorism bodies to redouble efforts to ensure universal compliance."
On Saturday at a bilateral meeting in advance to the summit, Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush also announced the global initiative to combat nuclear terrorism.
But, the recent wave of violence in the Middle East eclipsed other issues discussed at the summit.
More than 100 Lebanese have been killed and hundreds injured since Israel launched a military operation in the country following the abduction of two Israeli soldiers by the radical Islamist group Hizbollah. Israel is also engaged in fighting with the Palestinian Authority.
Hizbollah has also been delivering missile attacks on Israeli territory. The death toll in the country has reached 13 people.
"The most important thing at the moment is to end the violence, settle growing differences, prevent the region from plunging into chaos and triggering a more bigger conflict, to end the suffering of innocent people and focus on political and diplomatic settlement means with the UN playing a central role," Putin said.
