G8 foreign ministers open meet in Japan

KYOTO: Foreign ministers of the Group of Eight rich nations opened two days of talks in Japan Thursday set to focus on the North Korean and Iranian nuclear disputes.

Ministers of the eight nations -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States -- had a ceremonial welcome at a converted imperial palace in the western city of Kyoto, Japan's former capital.

The ministers, who include US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, were to hold a working dinner Thursday before holding a day of talks on Friday.

The talks opened just before China was expected to announce that North Korea had submitted a long-delayed declaration of its nuclear programmes under a six-nation aid-for-disarmament deal.

The G8 ministers were also due to discuss the political crisis in Zimbabwe and reconstruction in war-torn Afghanistan.

Russia was the only nation not represented by its top diplomat. It instead sent Andrei Denisov, the first deputy foreign minister.