Vowing not to let the deadly attacks on London commuters derail their agenda, G-8 leaders have nevertheless delayed a pair of highly-anticipated declarations.

Leaders gathered in Gleneagles, Scotland for the annual Group of Eight nations summit have said that announcements on the world economy and climate change that had been expected Thursday, would be put off for a day.

The decision came hours after summit host British Prime Minister Tony Blair left the heavily-secured golf resort to travel to London. There, he made a quick round-trip to survey damage and talk to officials before heading back to Gleneagles late Thursday night.

Flanked by U.S. President George Bush and French President Jacques Chirac, the British prime minister said all the world leaders and officials gathered for the annual G-8 conference were in agreement.

"Today's bombings will not weaken in any way our resolve to uphold the most deeply held principles of our societies and defeat those who would impose their fanaticism and extremism on all of us.

"We shall prevail and they shall not," he added, before standing with the other leaders in a brief moment of silence.

Less than an hour earlier, the British prime minister said that the high-profile gathering of G-8 leaders would proceed undeterred.

In his first public response to the series of blasts that struck subways and a bus in London as the G-8 summit got underway Thursday, Blair was resolute.

"Just as it is reasonably clear that this is a terrorist attack or a series of terrorist attacks, it's also reasonably clear that it is designed and aimed to coincide with the opening of the G-8."

Dozens of people are reported killed and hundreds more injured in the blasts that brought the city's transit system to a halt.

Summit to proceed

"It's particularly barbaric that this has happened on a day when people are meeting to try to help the problems of poverty in Africa, the long-term problems in climate change and the environment," Blair said.

Speaking carefully, the prime minister said the summit would nevertheless proceed in his absence.

"It is the will of all the leaders of the G-8 ... that we should continue to discuss the issues that we were going to discuss and reach the conclusions which we were going to reach."

But Blair had a clear message for whomever was responsible for the deadly attacks.

"It's important ... that those engaged in terrorism realize that our determination to defend our values and our way of life is greater than their determination to cause death and destruction."

Reporting from Gleneagles, CTV's Tom Kennedy said the prime minister's determination may have already been undermined.

Ruing the use of the word 'success', Kennedy said, "In a sense, these attacks in London have succeeded in diverting the attention of the world's media -- and therefore the attention of much of the world -- away from these meetings that are happening here."

Talking to reporters after Blair had left Gleneagles, Bush was dismayed that such violence should coincide with the annual meeting.

"The contrast couldn't be clearer between the intentions and the hearts of the those of us who care deeply about human rights ... and those who kill," he said, noting that he has told U.S. Homeland Security officials to be "vigilant" against possible terror attacks.

In his own statement, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin insisted the bombings in London did not derail the summit's agenda. He acknowledged, however, that the attacks had an impact at the meeting.

"The fact is we did carry on with the agenda; the discussions were held. But there's no doubt that overhanging this was just tremendous concern and horror at what had happened,'' Martin said.

G-8 agenda

Blair was expected during Friday's final session to press a cause he has championed -- boosting aid to Africa.

But some officials speculate that the final day of talks might have to be shortened to allow the Blair to fly back to London to chair a session of the government's Cobra emergency committee.

Earlier Thursday, Blair had been struggling to reach a compromise with Bush on the issue of global warming.

At a breakfast meeting, the pair discussed Blair's goal of setting specific targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
But at a subsequent press conference, Bush said he had no intention of revisiting any scheme that echoed goals set out in the Kyoto agreement.

"Now is the time to get beyond the Kyoto protocol and develop a strategy forward," Bush said of the international treaty that took effect last February.

The U.S. is the only G-8 nation that hasn't ratified the accord.
In his comments, Blair appeared resigned to failure on reaching a deal to set specific targets.

"Everybody has got their positions on the existing Kyoto and that is not going to change," he said.

In addition to climate change, Blair put tackling poverty at the top of the agenda at this year's 31st annual G-8 meetings.