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G8 summit starts in N. Ireland

17 June 2013 17:45 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Leaders of eight of the world's wealthiest nations sought elusive progress on lowering trans-Atlantic trade barriers and pushing the warring factions in Syria toward the negotiating table as the G-8 summit opened Monday amid high security in peaceful Northern Ireland.

Ahead of the official welcome gathering, British Prime Minister David Cameron and U.S. President Barack Obama appealed to their colleagues to draw inspiration from Northern Ireland's efforts to reconcile British Protestants and Irish Catholics following decades of bloodshed.

Cameron, Obama and European Union leaders were expected to unveil a formal agreement Monday to open negotiations on forging an EU-U.S. free trade pact designed to slash tariffs, boost exports and fuel badly needed economic growth.

Those EU-U.S. talks could start next month, with the end of 2014 a tentative goal for a deal that would lower prices on European and American imports and stimulate growth.

That's the easy part of the agenda. Later Monday over a working dinner, President Vladimir Putin and Russia's support for the Syrian government will be on the menu.

Within the Summit, the Presidents of United States, Russia and France, the OSCE co-chair states, are expected to issue a joint statement on the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

Northern Ireland's police stepped up security dramatically ahead of the leaders' arrival at the Lough Erne resort west of Enniskillen. Four-member units in body armor and armed with handguns and submachine guns parked armored cars on every intersection and side street in this rural market town of barely 15,000 residents.

Officers on foot patrol prodded hedgerows and the front gardens of brick row houses for potential explosive devices, but found nothing suspicious. Such precautions reflected the continued low-level activity of Irish Republican Army splinter groups that rejected the 2005 decision of most IRA members to formally abandon their campaign to force Northern Ireland into the Republic of Ireland.

More than 3,500 officers from Britain have been imported to double the security detail, and British army engineers have helped to erect a daunting perimeter of steel fences and coiled razor wire for miles (kilometers) around the resort's lone road entrance.

Air space over much of Northern Ireland is being restricted to summit traffic for the duration of the meetings, which conclude Tuesday. And the water around the resort's peninsula has been similarly closed to civilians, with police patrolling by boat, although the public is still free to fish from shore.

The police commander of G-8 security, Assistant Chief Constable Alistair Finlay, said he expects peace to reign when socialist and anti-globalization protesters march Monday night from central Enniskillen to the fence.

Finlay said while officers had trained to manage crowds of more than 10,000 protesters, this was unlikely to materialize Monday, with just 2,000 expected and few anti-G-8 activists traveling from continental Europe for the occasion.

Cameron said he also hoped to achieve agreement that no G-8 member should pay ransoms to secure the release of hostages in North Africa, where western and Asian workers are top targets for kidnappers.