After three days of multilateral and bilateral meetings with the leaders of Germany, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Japan, Putin paid particular attention to two issues that many had predicted before the meeting would dominate proceedings.
The president admitted that Iran had failed to respond to the incentives proposed by six international mediators in a bid persuade Tehran to halt uranium enrichment, but played down the threat of sanctions.
"It is too early to speak about sanctions against Iran," Putin said. "We have not reached that stage yet."
Although, the G8 leaders unanimously supported Saturday a decision by five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany to resolve the nuclear dispute with Iran by returning the matter to the Council, they might pursue different goals in New York.
Unlike the United States and some European countries, veto-wielding Russia and China, have opposed sanctions against Iran, where they have significant economic interests, and they could opt for less stringent punitive measures.
The G8 leaders urged Iran Saturday to respond to the incentives made June 6, echoing the mediators' earlier warning that a lack of response or a negative reply would lead to the Security Council resuming work on an Iran resolution, which had been frozen to enable negotiations with Iran.
North Korean talks
Putin said diplomacy should be given more time to work and he took the same position on North Korea.
"The nuclear problems with Iran and North Korea should be resolved in a purely peaceful, diplomatic way," the Russian leader said.
In the statement on North Korea, the G8 leaders condemned its missile test launches in early July as "jeopardizing peace, stability and security in the region and beyond." They urged an unconditional resumption of the six-nation talks on the nuclear program, which has been in the deadlock in the past six months.
The statement came in the wake of a UN Security Council resolution Saturday barring imports and exports of materials that could be used in the production of weapons of mass destruction from and to North Korea.
Putin said the early resumption of the six-party talks was crucial for resolving the nuclear problem.
"There is a pressing need to restart the negotiating process as soon as possible," he told the news conference.
He said Chinese President Hu Jintao had briefed a meeting of G8 leaders on the results of negotiations with North Korea and expressed cautious optimism that the North Korean problem could be resolved through diplomacy "by creating conditions for securing the peninsula's status as a nuclear-free zone and attaining agreement on the missile issue."
China, which has some clout with the communist state, was reportedly behind a milder UN resolution on the North, whereas Japan had sought economic sanctions against the country. Russia, the United States and South Korea are the other countries involved in the negotiating process.
Energy security
These issues, as well as a recent wave of violence in the Middle East, overshadowed the initial agenda for the summit, which Russia hoped would be dominated by energy security, the problem that has been in the focus of media and political leaders' attention this year.
But Putin claimed some success in this area, saying the leaders had elaborated common approaches to ensuring global energy security and developing nuclear power and adopted a declaration on Global Energy Security.
"Our joint strategy is based on a common understanding of a universal energy future for humanity, a future for which we are responsible together," Putin told the news conference adding that G8 decisions would help "improve the global energy security system."
He said the decisions covered reliability of energy infrastructure, diversification of production and supplies of energy resources, development of energy-saving technologies and alternative energy sources, as well as increased transparency and predictability for energy markets.
They also heeded environmental concerns and interests of the developing and power countries, Putin said.
But more specific discussions took place at bilateral meetings.
Putin and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi discussed natural gas supplies to Europe through Ukrainian territory, according to the premier.
The issue has concerned European consumers after Russia cut off natural gas supplies to Ukraine in January. Although Europe-bound supplies of Russian natural gas were supposed to remain unaffected, energy giant Gazprom said Ukraine had tapped off some gas traveling through two pipelines on its territory and European consumers registered a shortfall that led to calls for diversification.
Gazprom said earlier that Ukraine was falling behind schedule in filling its underground storage facilities, which should ensure steady gas supplies to Europe.
