World leaders in Italy for G8 summit

L'AQUILA, July 8 Reuters) - The leaders of the Group of Eight -- United States, Britain, Germany, Italy, France, Russia, Canada and Japan -- plus European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and current EU president Sweden gathered in Italy to discuss the end of recession, financial regulation, Doha trade round.

Following comments from world leaders at the summit.

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER GORDON BROWN

On climate change: "The world will recognize that today in Italy we have laid the foundations for a Copenhagen deal that is ambitious fair and effective.

"We accept the scientific evidence and I believe most countries are ready to accept that evidence.

"If tomorrow we get an agreement that the scientific evidence is telling us that there is a limit beyond which we cannot go -- that will be real progress because it will be the first time all countries have agreed that."

On the economy: "From talking to people around the table, everybody agrees with this language and everybody agrees also we've got to be vigilant. There are warning signals about the global economy that we cannot afford to ignore.

"In September when we meet at Pittsburgh as a G20 we will have a clear agreement on the strategy for global growth."

Asked about the discussion on oil prices, Brown replied:

"We didn't discuss a specific figure and we didn't discuss in detail any price range ... There's no agreement on ranges."

GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL:

"All were of the view that the crisis is a long way from being over. With luck, we have reached the bottom."

Merkel added that agreement among the Group of Eight industrial powers that a rise in global temperatures should not exceed two degrees Celsius was "clear progress."

If negotiations continued as planned, there was a good chance that developing nations would sign up to the two degree target, Merkel said. However, there was still plenty of work to be done before this point was reached" she added.

Earlier in the morning Merkel said:

"We (the industrial nations), have caused a lot of damage to nature. Therefore it is our job, to be frontrunner in the protection of the climate. It is also we, the industrial nations, who have taken part in causing the world-economic crisis through the crisis on the financial markets. Therefore the world is right to expect from us to contribute to a solution here"

SWEDISH PRIME MINISTER FREDRIK REINFELDT told Reuters:

"The big achievement from this G8 so far is that the U.S. has come forward and met us on the two degrees (Celsius climate goal). This is in the final text."

Asked about whether the G8 leaders had agreed upon reducing global carbon emission by 80 percent with rich countries seeking to cut them by 50 percent, Reinfeldt said:

"In the G8, in the final textH, it is mentioned." He added there was no base year for the cuts.

RUSSIA PRESIDENT DMITRY MEDVEDEV said in a statement:

"Cooperation in overcoming the global financial and economic crisis will become the central topics of my contacts here. Discussions will be mainly focused on confirming and developing further decisions of the London G20 summit including restoring order in financial sector, encouraging trade and the need for structural changes in the global economy."

"Problems of helping less developed countries, which have suffered most from the global crisis, remain very important."

CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER STEPHEN HARPER:

"The first job remains making sure banks and financial institutions are functioning. There's still work to be done on that front, obviously not in Canada but around the world in many other countries."

"Before there's talk of additional stimulus, I would urge all leaders to focus on making sure the stimulus that's been announced actually gets delivered. That's been our focus in Canada, and I would encourage the same priority elsewhere."

It is important that we take efforts to guard against protectionism and to be very leery of the protectionist tendencies we are seeing in some countries' stimulus plans."

U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, after talks in Rome with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, told reporters that nuclear proliferation was among the issues they discussed:

"He agreed that even as the United States and Russia find ways to fulfil our responsibility to reduce our stockpiles that it's very important for the world community to speak to countries like Iran and North Korea and encourage them to take a path that does not result in a nuclear arms race in places like the Middle East and that there are other means by which countries can ensure their sovereignty and gain respect."