G8 summit opens in US

Washington, May 19 (IANS) The summit of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations opened Friday in Maryland, US.

The two-day summit groups together leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US. The event will discuss issues, including the eurozone crisis, Iran nuclear standoff, Syria, global energy and food security, among others.

However, despite its wide-ranging agenda, many analysts expected no major outcomes from the gathering, Xinhua reported.

On the eurozone crisis, it is quite unrealistic to expect the leaders to make a choice between economic growth and fiscal discipline, given the substantial differences between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and new French President Francois Hollande.

In addition, with the absence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the summit can hardly achieve progress on issues like Iran and Syria, where Russia plays a major role.

The Kremlin said Thursday that Russia will work to exclude Syria and Iran from the declaration of the G8 summit.

Many observers believed that under the current global order, the G8 has proved to be unable to tackle the major economic and political challenges, with last year's summit in France being widely criticized as a "nightmare" and "making no sense".