Leaders from the Group of Eight (G8) leading industrial powers kicked off their annual summit on Wednesday near the northern German Baltic resort of Heiligendamm.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country holds the rotating G8 presidency, welcomed other G8 leaders with an informal dinner in a 14th-century palace on the Hohen Luckow estate, some 25 km south-east of the summit venue in Heiligendamm.

The three-day G8 summit is expected to focus on climate change, the development in Africa, the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization, the U.S. plan of deploying a missile defense shield in Central Europe.

The leaders may also talk about Iran's nuclear program and the security situation in the Middle East.

The G8 groups Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

Besides talks among themselves, the leaders of the world's major economic powers are scheduled to have two outreach sessions, one with five major developing countries -- Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa, and the other with African countries --

Algeria, Ethiopia, Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa.

Source: Xinhua