G8 leaders urged to deliver on past pledges

World leaders will be gathering today for G8 talks on global security and development, amid calls to deliver on past promises and a brewing dispute on how to shore up fragile economic recovery.

World leaders will be gathering Friday for G8 talks on global security and development, amid calls to deliver on past promises and a brewing dispute on how to shore up fragile economic recovery.

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"At the Muskoka summit, I will join my fellow G8 leaders to take action on some of the world's most pressing problems," Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged, in a message to delegations.

"We will make a real difference and deliver results," he vowed, as thousands of delegations, journalists and activists descended on eastern Ontario province for two back-to-back summits.

Under a tight security blanket, leaders from the Group of Eight richest nations were meeting Friday in an exclusive, remote hotel resort in Huntsville, Muskoka, some 220 kilometres (140 miles) north of Toronto.

Then on Saturday and Sunday they will join others from the Group of 20 developed and emerging nations for a summit in the city here, with 20,000 police deployed for a huge billion-dollar security operation.

The key themes of the G8 talks were "growth and confidence," European Union president Herman Van Rompuy told journalists, with the leaders first set to huddle behind closed doors for a working lunch to discuss the world economy.