The Group of Eight industrial nations meeting outside Washington on 18-19 May will begin with talks on Syria and Iran, a Kremlin aide said on Thursday.

"The G8 meeting will kick off with a working lunch, which will be devoted to the issues of global security and national scenarios, inlcuding, of course, the problems of Syria and Iran," Arkady Dvorkovich said at a news briefing in Moscow. "Here, the most important question for us is to follow the principles we have declared previously."

"We would also like to eliminate attempts to include in the G8's declarations... the points which were being imposed on the UN Security Council as it prepared its decisions," he said.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who is attending the meeting instead of President Vladimir Putin, will hold bilateral talks with U.S. President Barack Obama, Dvorkovich said.

"There will be many contacts," he said, adding that the meeting with Obama will be "less formal" than with other G8 leaders.

Putin, who was inaugurated as president on May 7 after four years as prime minister, has canceled his planned visit to the meeting, saying he was busy finalizing his cabinet.