"Attempts are being made to divide the world along religious or ethnic lines, to drive a wedge first of all between Christianity and the Islamic world," Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his 3 July address to the gathering. "The world is practically being forced into a conflict of civilisations."
Russia holds the presidency of the group of the world's leading industrialised powers this year and has sought to assert itself in a number of spheres from geopolitics to business, and now religion.
Putin promised to inform the G-8 leaders of the results of the religious summit, in his address to the opening ceremony at Moscow's President Hotel, a high-security compound that was used by Communist Party leaders and is still run by the Kremlin.
Patriarch Alexei II of the Russian Orthodox Church, which initiated the summit, emphasised the role of morality in avoiding conflicts. Ayatollah Muhammad Ali Taskhiri of Iran praised Putin's efforts for seeking common ground with Islam and stressed that Islam is a religion of peace.
Israel's Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, who leads mainly Jews of European descent, supported him but also lashed out at those who deny the Holocaust.
The Vatican delegation, led by Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, is the largest, the latest indication of a reported thaw in relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church since the election of Pope Benedict XVI.
Many of the world's top religious leaders are participating, including World Council of Churches general secretary Samuel Kobia, Pope Shenouda of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church and the Grand Mufti of Syria, Baderddin Hassoun.
The religion summit's statement, to be adopted at the end of the meeting on 5 July, will address questions of terrorism and family values, organizers have said.
Still, several major religious leaders were absent. In an interview with Rossiya, Russia's main state television channel, Metropolitan Kirill, the chairperson of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, said the Dalai Lama was not invited so as not to jeopardise Tibetan Buddhists' fragile negotiations with the Chinese government.
At a news conference in June, Kirill said the Pope was not invited so as not to "mix historical events". Benedict's predecessor, Pope John Paul II, had for years publicly expressed his desire to visit Russia, but the Russian Orthodox Church resisted such a visit.
Article written by Sophia Kishkovsky
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