The Group of Eight summit in Okinawa drew to an anaemic close yesterday with participants agreeing to an almost exclusively aspirational 82-point communique that supported worthy goals, but provided little indication of how they could be achieved.
One of the few concrete proposals contained in the document was the establishment of a Digital Opportunities Task Force to investigate ways "to bridge the international information and knowledge divide" between rich and poor countries.
Also, in the area of infectious diseases, which along with information technology was billed as a major theme of the summit, the G8 leaders agreed to work more closely with pharmaceuticals companies, NGOs and other agencies to achieve UN goals on reducing AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. A conference will convene in Japan later to assess progress on the objectives.
Heated discussion about genetically modified foods between the Americans and Europeans was unable to achieve a meeting of minds. The US criticised what it sees as unwarranted European controls on the foods.
However, the issue was left unresolved in the communique, which instead offered something to both sides.
For the Europeans, who are accused of erring too much on the side of consumer safety, the document committed signatories to "make systems responsive to the growing public awareness of food safety issues [and] the potential risks associated with food." And for the Americans, who say the Europeans use unscientific arguments to oppose the altered foods, the document said, "a science-based, rule-based approach remains a key principle".
The countries also said they would push for a resumption before the end of the year of the next round of WTO talks, derailed last December in Seattle.
And in a sop to Germany and Japan, who are looking for a seat on the UN Security Council to give them political status in line with their economic clout, the G8 said it remained "convinced that reforms of the United Nations, including the Security Council, are indispensable."
But overall there was precious little to show for the hugely expensive three-day meeting.
Though leaders of business associations in Japan told the daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun that they welcomed the outcome of the summit, NGO groups have expressed displeasure.
"This will be known as the squandered summit. While the G8 leaders have enjoyed Japan's $750 million hospitality, they have squandered an historic opportunity to cancel the unpayable debts of the poorest countries," Ms Ann Pettifor, director of Jubilee 2000 UK, said in a statement.
Though the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, supported a broad debt reduction, other countries, apparently including Japan, which supplies over one quarter of the world's Official Development Assistance, demurred.
The Russian President, Mr Vladimir Putin, perhaps sensing that his richer G8 cousins were not in a debt-forgiving mood, did not utter a word about cancelling the tens of billions of pounds in debt which his country owes the West. He did, however, burnish his image as a rising regional fixer by bringing news of an intriguing proposal from the North Korean leader, Mr Kim Jong-il, that Pyongyang would stop its development of ballistic missiles in return from some of the West's satellite technology know-how.
But that was one of the few interesting points to a summit that retained the dull, rehearsed feel of a set-piece. It did not help that the most powerful participant, the US President, Mr Clinton, obviously wanted to be back home at the Camp David Middle East peace talks. Mr Clinton arrived late and left early. Indeed, Japanese newspapers speculated that were the gathering not held in Okinawa, whose resentful population hosts half of the American military personnel based in Japan, that he might not have come at all.