Photo shows leaders and ministers from the D8 group of Muslim developing nations during a session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Tuesday.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the Eight Islamic Developing Countries (D8) could be the pioneer of peace and justice in the world.
In his address to the opening session of Sixth D8 Summit on Tuesday, President Ahmadinejad said, “The D8 can present a model of fair and peaceful activities to the world.“
He voiced Tehran’s readiness to help the group in economic, environmental, tourism and energy fields, IRNA reported.
The D8--comprising Iran, Indonesia, Egypt, Malaysia, Turkey, Pakistan, Nigeria and Bangladesh--represents about one billion people, or 14 percent of the world’s population.
The president also expressed Iran’s support for drafting a 10-year vision plan for the D8 as well as strengthening its secretariat. He also proposed the establishment of an institution by the D8 member-states to use their potentials for generating energy.
Ahmadinejad called on D8 member-states to cooperate in the field of Islamic banking to help promote the sustainable growth of Muslim developing states.

Planning for Future
Ahmadinejad urged D8 members to plan for a future without bullying powers.
“Following comprehensive cooperation and consultation, the D8 can formulate a roadmap to overcome crises,“ he said.
He urged member-states to take great strides toward justice and brotherhood based on their common principles.
The president also urged the D8 to play a more con structive and effective role in resolving regional and international problems.
“A close and comprehensive cooperation among the D8 states, particularly in the field of economy, would play a key role in stabilizing the economies of Islamic developing countries and in reducing unexpected shocks resulting from international economic and monetary crises,“ he said.
He regretted that the current international relations system has not been successful in promoting global peace and security.

Awaiting Bush Exit
Addressing a news conference on the sidelines of the summit, Ahmadinejad said the US president has acted in such a way that all nations are waiting for him to leave office.
“The current administration in America, led by Mr. Bush, has tarnished its own and the American people’s reputation before the world nations,“ he said.
The president said the American people do not like their government to be a flag-bearer of bullying, aggression and genocide in the world.
“The Americans also do no like hundreds of billions of dollars worth of their assets to be spent for the US administration’s war-mongering policy,“ he said.

10-Year Trade Plan
Leaders from the D8 group of developing nations adopted a 10-year plan to substantially increase trade between their countries.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani urged the D8 countries to quickly implement trade and customs agreements aimed at promoting economic cooperation, which were also inked there.
“The early implementation of these agreements will give promote intra-D8 trade, which at present amounts to only 60.5 billion dollars,“ he said.
The D8 leaders also called for urgent measures to increase food production and reconsider their bio-fuel policy, warning that escalating food and fuel prices could lead to disaster.
They said the twin problems of food and energy security were putting a severe strain on their countries, especially on the poor.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said the harsh US rhetoric toward Iran appeared to be contributing to the surge in oil prices and that a calmer approach might help soothe the markets.
Obama was asked in a news conference about some ways that the United States could help reduce the price of oil in the short term, Reuters reported.
The Illinois senator listed some of his energy proposals such as a plan to rein in excessive speculation in the energy markets.
“There are some geopolitical issues that affect the price of oil,“ he added. “So, for us to ratchet down the rhetoric when it comes to Iran, for example, and engage in tough, principled diplomacy, as I’ve called for, might calm the markets down.“
These comments echo those of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday who urged Washington to stop making threats against oil-producing Iran and Venezuela to see prices decline.
Iranian Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari also touched on the issue of mounting crude prices on Saturday, warning that empty anti-Iran rhetoric alone “pushes oil prices up by 10 to 15 dollars“.
Oil prices on Thursday surged to an all-time high of over $146 a barrel. A number of energy experts predict that future oil prices could even surpass $250 per barrel in light of current market trends.
In Japan on Tuesday, eight of the world’s most powerful leaders called for efforts to cool sizzling oil prices, warning soaring fuel and food costs were a threat to world economic growth.

Campaign groups have criticized the US on the use of cluster bombs and its 10-year delay in banning munitions following last month’s international agreement in Dublin, Ireland.
Thomas Nash, international coordinator for the UK-based Cluster Munition Coalition, said the US Pentagon’s policy was “completely outrageous“, IRNA reported
“They are trying to find ways of addressing the concerns of their allies abroad and critics at home, but these measures fall very short. They are surprisingly weak even for the Americans,“ Nash said.
A new three-page Pentagon memo pledged that only after 2018, more than 99 percent of the explosives in cluster bombs must detonate on impact.
The memo also defended the use of cluster bombs, claiming they “provide distinct advantages against a range of targets and can result in less collateral damage“ than other weapons.
Total elimination, it said, would be ’unacceptable’.
Campaigners suggested that the Pentagon’s plan is motivated by an attempt to sell stocks of bombs with a high proportion of unexploded munitions that kill and maim innocent civilians. They also claim it highlights the US isolation on the issue.
The US did not attend the Dublin talks, following which 111 countries signed up to ban cluster bombs.
Nash said the only good thing was that the US is not going to have many countries to sell the weapons to.
Another UK campaign group, Handicap International, said the plans indicated that the US was “under pressure to be seen to respond to the humanitarian impact of cluster munitions“ but that its response was ’meaningless’.
“To wait another 10 years before banning cluster munitions has more to do with protecting existing stockpiles than with concern for the communities devastated by these weapons,“ said Handicap’s Spokesman Rae McGrath.

Syria called on European governments on Tuesday to show understanding of Arab refusal to normalize ties with Israel without a comprehensive peace deal, as it prepared to join a Mediterranean summit in Paris alongside an Israeli delegation.
“The Europeans need to understand Arab demands to recover their lands and not engage in a normalization process for free with an enemy that is still occupying our territory,“ AFP quoted an editorial in the ruling party’s mouthpiece daily as saying.
“Arabs want to see the launch of a comprehensive development process so that progress and peace can reign on both shores of the Mediterranean,“ the Al-Baath editorial added.
The editorial stressed that peace and security are not achievable if territories are not restored to their rightful owners and if the social and economic gap between the two shores of the Mediterranean is not closed.
“That’s the Arab message that President Bashar Al-Assad will be taking to Paris,“ it concluded.
Assad is due to meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Saturday, ahead of Sunday’s summit of some 40 European and Mediterranean leaders.
Sunday’s summit will mark the first time that a Syrian president has sat at the same table as an Israeli delegation.
The most senior official to attend previous meetings involving the two sides was the then foreign minister, now vice president, Faruk Al-Shara.
Israel and Syria announced in March that they had resumed peace talks after an eight-year break, indirectly through Turkish mediators.
The two sides, which remain at a state of war despite a 1974 armistice, have since held three rounds of Turkish-mediated talks and agreed to hold another.
Syria has made any peace deal conditional on Israel’s withdrawal from all of the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau it seized in the 1967 war and annexed in 1981 in a move never recognized by the international community.