The Syrian conflict is expected to dominate talks among leaders of the G8 nations meeting in Northern Ireland. Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet US President Barack Obama during the two-day annual summit for what could be prickly talks, as both leaders now offer military support to opposing sides in the war. Germany, France, Japan, Italy and Canada will be represented in the summit starting on Monday at the luxury lake-fringed Lough Erne golf resort in County Fermanagh. The British Prime Minister David Cameron, the host of the meeting of the top eight industrialised powers, insisted he could overcome his differences with Putin after they held pre-summit talks in London. Russia remains a staunch supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the two-year-conflict that has left more than 94,000 people dead, amid growing Western efforts to arm the rebels. In London, Putin insisted that Moscow had abided by international law when supplying weapons to Assad’s regime and demanded that Western countries contemplating arming the opposition do the same.
