Violent protests against the Group of Eight summit have flared up again as the main industrial powers neared the end of their three-day meeting following the departure of US President George W. Bush.
Several thousand demonstrators blocked Geneva's main bridge over the Rhone river today and clashed with police for the third night running, despite the fact most anti-G8 activists had left the area after large weekend protests. Two dozen people were arrested.
Police in Lausanne, the other city in nearby Switzerland hit by unrest against the summit on the French shore of Lake Geneva, warned residents scattered protests could take place there.
The G8 talks, held under tight security, were to wrap up by midday with summit host French President Jacques Chirac issuing an upbeat statement on prospects for a world economic recovery.
The Group - the United States, Germany, Japan, Russia, France, Britain, Italy and Canada - will also renew pledges to fight terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
With Mr Bush now on a Middle East peace mission, the shadow of the Iraq war passed from the three-day summit that began the long process of healing wounds opened up by the bitter rift over the US-led war in Iraq. Half of the G8 members opposed the war.
In a surprise move, France announced late yesterday all eight leaders had agreed, in response to the dollar's recent sharp fall, that currency stability was a key condition for growth and they would monitor market movements closely.
It appeared to be the strongest signal on currencies issued in the name of the G8 since central banks intervened jointly in September 2000 to support a weak euro.
Officials said the position on currencies, designed to calm market volatility after a 12 percent fall in the dollar against the euro this year, would not be put in writing.
Participants quoted Bush as saying he did not want a weak dollar and would not use the currency as an economic weapon.
Bush won an endorsement of his priority for the fight against the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical arms, if not of his policy of pre-emptive strikes against such threats.
The leaders demanded that North Korea and Iran, two countries' in Bush's so-called "axis of evil" along with pre-war Iraq, curtail their nuclear programmes, accept intrusive inspections and renounce atomic weapons.
A G8 statement said WMD proliferation and terrorism were "the pre-eminent threat to international security". But it did not mention Bush's proposal to stop and seize shipments of suspected WMD and missile parts on sea and in the air.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Bush had given his colleagues "a clear statement that the idea of an armed operation by American forces in Iran is completely without foundation".
Throughout the summit, the separate agendas of Bush and Chirac vied for ascendancy.
The French president invited an expanded cast of leaders from Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, all of whom coincidentally opposed the war in Iraq, to thrust development issues onto the table of the "rich men's club".
He challenged Bush to invite the major developing nations to next year's G8 in the United States to keep the spotlight on issues such as fighting deadly epidemics, improving access to clean water and reducing Third World debt.
But on one issue vital for business confidence, the leaders appeared to have made scant progress. While reaffirming their commitment to conclude global trade liberalisation talks on time by the end of 2005, they sidestepped all the transatlantic disputes that are holding up progress.