The European Union and Japan expressed concern about rising food and oil prices, and agreed a post-Kyoto framework on climate change should include national targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
"Summit leaders noted with strong concern the trends of high prices of natural resources and commodities, in particular, prices of food and oil, which could slow down the growth in (the) global economy and have negative effects on developed and developing countries," they said in a joint statement after a leaders' summit in Tokyo.
"They underlined the urgent need to address the issue, particularly in light of its acute impact on developing countries' efforts to overcome poverty," the leaders added.
The United Nations' World Food Program has called rising food prices "silent tsunami" that threatens to plunge more than 100 million people on every continent into hunger.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told a news conference after the summit that a fall off in official development aid for a second straight year in 2007 was alarming. "And when you add to this negative developments that we have watched recently - the recent elements concerning food prices - we have reasons to be sincerely concerned," Barroso said.
"So we also hope that we can mobilise the global community to another additional effort in terms of development aid, mainly to Africa," he added.
In talks that included Barroso, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and European Council President Janez Jansa, the two sides also agreed that a "highly ambitious and binding international approach" was needed to deal with climate change after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
Japan has been pushing for greenhouse gas curbs to be set according to industries such as steel and cement while Europe has favoured economy-wide targets, but in their comments the two sides stressed agreement on a common goal.
Referring to a convergence between Japan and the European Union, Barroso said he hoped the G8 summit in Japan in July would be a "real moment of breakthrough" towards a global agreement by the end of 2009.
"It is very important we agreed on goals and we also agreed that many proposals are needed to be successful fighting climate change," Jansa told the news conference. "So we don't think there is only one possible solution which should be used by everyone."
The leaders also agreed on the need for a rapid and successful conclusion to global market liberalisation talks under the World Trade Organisation, and said they would strengthen cooperation on the safety of food an other products, apparently reflecting Tokyo's concerns about Chinese products in the wake of food poisoning cases in Japan involving imported dumplings.
Japan will host in Hokkaido on July 7-9 the annual G8 summit, which brings together leaders from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. The European Union will also takes part.