ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland (AP) — The leaders of major economic powers are declaring themselves dedicated to a political solution to Syria’s bloody civil war, even as President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin stake out diametrically opposite stands on which side deserves military support.

Ahead of a Group of Eight joint statement on Syria to be issued today, the U.S. remained committed to Obama’s recent decision to arm the rebels and Russia did not budge from its weapons sales to President Bashar Assad’s regime.

Yet even as Obama found common ground among European allies against Putin at a G-8 summit in Northern Ireland,

Obama also struggled to convince some of those same allies to join him in sending armaments to the Syrian opposition.

Also today, leaders of the G- 8 wealthy nations are spending time focused on how to deter kidnappings of foreign workers in North Africa and how to corner globe-trotting companies into paying more taxes.

Prime Minister David Cameron has invited the leaders of Libya and the African Union to join Britain, the United States, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Russia around the talks table today.

The British leader seeks a joint commitment by nations to stop paying ransoms to kidnappers in hopes of deterring the practice following January’s bloody capture by al- Qaeda-linked militants of an Algerian gas facility. Ten Japanese, five Britons, three Americans and a French national were among the 40 civilians killed as Algerian forces retook the facility.

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