Meeting in the northern Italian port city of Trieste, G8 foreign ministers had to smooth over differing standpoints to hammer out a final communique on topics ranging from Iran to North Korea and the Middle East.

In a final statement, G8 ministers said they "deplored" the post-election crackdown on protesters in Iran and urged the government to "respect fundamental human rights, including freedom of expression."

Presenting the document, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini expressed the Group of Eight's "solidarity with the victims" and said the violence in Iran had to "stop immediately."

Before the meeting, Frattini had called for a stronger statement of condemnation, but Russian insistence that such a message would only antagonize Iran led to a softening of that stance.

North Korea sharply rebuked for nuclear test

That terminology, however, was reserved instead for North Korea.

"We condemn in the strongest terms the nuclear test conducted on May 25 in violation of UN Security Council resolution 1718 and the rocket launch of April 5, which constitute a threat to regional peace and stability," the statement said.

Japan, in particular, had pushed for a strongly-worded statement.

North Korea has reacted defiantly to a UN Security Council decision to impose new sanctions.

On the Middle East, the G8 ministers called on both the Palestinians and the Israelis "to fulfill their obligations under the road map, including a freeze in settlement activity and an unequivocal end to violence and terrorism."

They also called on a freeze in "natural growth" of existing Israeli settlements and urged all parties "to re-enter direct negotiations on all standing issues consistent with the road map."

Ministers from Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as other countries and organizations, will join the G8 ministers later on Friday to discuss a regional approach to the Afghan conflict.

gb/dpa/AFP/Reuters
Editor: Trinity Hartman