Based on the results of the 2002 G8 summit in Kananaskis, Canada, a final Compliance Report completed by the University of Toronto G8 Research Group indicated that the compliance scores following the 2002 G8 summit varied widely by issue area, with commitments on fighting terrorism scoring the highest scores across France, the United States, Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia.

The research results also showed that among the 13 major issue areas, scores were also high in the areas of Africa (education), Environment (sustainable agriculture), Environment (water).

Lower scores were reflected in the areas of Economic Growth (agricultural trade), Africa (peer review), Development (Heavily Indebted Poor Country) and Economic Growth (free trade).

According to the report by the G8 Research Group, the world's leading independent source of information and research on the G8 and its institutions, compliance scores also varied widely by country.

The highest complying member across the 13 major issue areas was Canada, which hosted the Kananaskis summit, with a score of 85percent. France and Britain tied in second place at 62 percent.

The United States earned a score of 38 percent, followed by Germany at 15 percent, with Japan and Russia scoring the same 8 percent.

Italy complied the least with its Kananaskis commitments, turning in a score of minus 9 percent.

Since the conclusion of the Kananaskis Summit in June 2002, theG8 have complied with their priority commitments made across the 13 major issue areas 35 percent of the time, the report said.

These scores are considerably lower than those of the 2001 Genoa Summit in Italy (49.5 percent), the 2000 Okinawa Summit in Japan (81.4 percent), the 1999 Cologne Summit in Germany (39 percent), the 1998 Birmingham Summit in Britain (45 percent) and the 1996 Lyon Summit in France (36 percent).

Only in the year following the 1997 Denver Summit in the United States did the leaders perform more disappointedly when their compliance scores hit an overall average of 27 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency June 1, 2003)