The Group of Eight won a pledge from Russia to open its energy sector to foreign investment, although Moscow refused to commit to ratifying the Energy Charter, an international rulebook.
The European Union has pressed Russia, which supplies a quarter of its gas, to ratify the Charter and break the export monopoly of state-controlled gas giant Gazprom
President Vladimir Putin has resisted that pressure and his officials have dismissed the Charter as outdated and ineffective. But EU officials see his backing of wide energy security principles as a step in the right direction.
"It was good that those principles were recognised, but it's not enough," EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said.
"The formula that was adopted. . . takes note of the efforts by energy charter participations to improve international energy co-operation. Period. So no ratification of the Energy Charter," Russian G8 negotiator Andrei Kondakov said.
