EVIAN, France - World leaders, seeking to display renewed cooperation after the damaging Iraq crisis, voiced confidence in a global economic recovery on Monday and agreed steps to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

　　But thesgroupsof Eight leaders made no substantial progress on deadlocked world trade talks and gave no clear signal of how to deal with the dollar's recent rapid slide - a key factor troubling the United States' major trade partners.

　　US President George W. Bush, who left the G8 summit of industrialized nations a day early for Middle East peace talks, made a show of courtesy with French President Jacques Chirac, his chief diplomatic adversary before the Iraq war in March.

　　"We can have disagreements but that doesn't mean we have to be disagreeable to each other," Bush said during a joint photo session overlooking Lake Geneva before a short private meeting.

　　A French official said Bush had told Chirac he would be happy to see him in the United States, but set no date. "It will probably be in the autumn," the official said.

　　A US official said Bush had reassured his host Washington was not trying to split Europe, and sought Chirac's advice on how to draw Syria and Lebanon into Middle East peace efforts.

　　Chirac reciprocated by saying the G8 unanimously supported Bush's efforts to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace.

　　Fight WMD spread

　　In an endorsement of Washington's priorities, the leaders issued a strong joint pledge to fight the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and prevent them falling into terrorist hands.

　　They also called for a crackdown on small, shoulder-held anti-aircraft missiles, so-called "Manpads", such as the one that nearly shot down an Israeli airliner in Kenya in November.

　　But there was no explicit mention of Bush's proposal to stop and seize suspected shipments of WMD and missile parts.

　　British Prime Minister Tony Blair said they shared optimism that their anaemic economies would recover soon if they stuck to painful but necessary pensions and welfare reforms.

　　"There's acceptance within the euro zone and within Europe that provided we do face up to and overcome these challenges of structural reform, we've got every prospect of resuming strong growth in the near future," he told a news conference.

　　Blair cited German welfare and labour market reforms, France's bitterly contested attempt to overhaul state pensions and his own effort to charge higher university fees as essential moves to cope with the economic challenges of globalization.

　　German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said the Europeans had made clear that the European Central Bank still had room to stimulate the economy by cutting interest rates further.

　　The G8 leaders from the United States, Russia, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada discussed the dollar's fall of about 15 per cent against the euro this year, but issued no statement on currency volatility.

　　Participants said Bush assured his partners he did not want a weak dollar and would not use the currency as a weapon.

　　A White House spokesman reiterated the standard line that Washington supports a strong dollar but the market determines the level.

　　European Commission President Romano Prodi said the message of revived G8 cooperation to promote growth and tackle political and security problems should calm financial markets, but they discussed no specific mechanism to curb currency volatility.

　　A declaration on the world economy to be issued later would send the morale-boosting message that falling oil prices and resumed political cooperation among squabbling allies had brightened the outlook for business, a G8 source said.

　　But there was no boost to confidence from a trade statement, which, while pledging to complete global liberalization talks on time by the end of 2004, skirted transatlantic rows that have stalled negotiations so far.

　　Weapons threat

　　The declaration on weapons of mass destruction called these arms and the threat of terrorism "the pre-eminent threat to international security".

　　It said the world community had to use inspections, export controls "and if necessary other measures" to tackle the threat, a veiled reference to the possible use of force.

　　The G8 singled out North Korea and Iran for criticism over their nuclear programmes.

　　"We strongly urge North Korea to visibly, verifiably and irreversibly dismantle any nuclear weapons programmes," it said, adding Iran's nuclear programme could lead to illegal weapons.

　　Anti-summit protests tailed off on Monday after violent rampages through Swiss cities on the other side of Lake Geneva by anarchists and anti-capitalists on Sunday, in which police detained several hundred youths in Geneva and Lausanne.