While the threat of sanctions was never on the table, leaders bowed to Russian pressure by not issuing a separate statement on Iran, grouping it instead with other statements on North Korea, the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

One of the numerous journalists arrested in Iran in the wake of the post-electoral violence was a correspondent for the US weekly magazine Newsweek, who Iranian officials now claim has confessed to writing slanderous articles against the Tehran government.

The heads of state and government of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US reiterated Western calls for Iran to come clean on its nuclear programme by cooperating fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The leaders condemned North Korea's latest nuclear tests.