G8 summit to focus on tax, trade and transparency

Tax, trade and transparency are expected to dominate discussions on the second day of a summit of the G8 group of leading industrialised nations.The issues - dubbed "The Three Ts" - were placed at thetop of the agendaby the UK for its presidency of the G8.Monday's meetings in Northern Ireland focused on the conflict in Syria.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was pressed to agree a joint communique calling for peace talks and better access for aid or face isolation.

As reports "Armenpress" citing BBC, after talks with his US counterpart Barack Obama, both men acknowledged their differences but said they shared a common desire to stop the bloodshed."Of course, our opinions don't coincide. But all of us want to stop the violence and we have agreed to push the parties to the negotiating table," Mr Putin told reporters.

Mr Obama said they had instructed their teams to continue working towards hosting an international conference in Geneva that would aim to find a political solution to end the violence, which the UN says has left more than 93,000 people dead since March 2011.

In an interview with US broadcaster PBS, Mr Obama emphasised that "we're not taking sides in a religious war between Shia and Sunni" but aiming instead for a "stable, non-sectarian, representative government".

In his first direct remarks since the US said it would step up military support to Syrian rebels, he warned that anyone not involved in the detail might not understand "if you set up a no-fly zone, that you may not be actually solving the problem on the zone".

"We have to not rush into one more war in the Middle East."

His interview coincided with a White House announcement that the US would provide a further $300m of humanitarian aid for Syrians - split between Syria itself, where more than 4.25 million people have been displaced, and neighbouring countries dealing with the 1.6 million refugees.