``The fact they were invited only to the lunch and not to the actual discussions means that these four countries had no input into the final communique, which had been finalised before they met for lunch,'' said Rebecca Johnson of the Acronym Institute, which campaigns for global nuclear weapons disarmament. ``It means these countries were only asked to rubber stamp the communique.

'' The foreign ministers of Argentina, Brazil, South Africa and Ukraine -- all countries that have pulled back from a nuclear weapons programme in the past -- were invited to join only parts of yesterday's meeting of the Group of Eight (G-8) most developed states and Russia.

The London sessions, called to tackle what British foreign secretary Robin Cook called``the serious global challenge posed by the nuclear tests carried out by India and Pakistan,'' were also joined by representatives from China, an ``official'' nuclear power but not a G-8 member, and the Philippines, representing the Association of South East Asian Nations. In their communique, G-8 foreign ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States called upon India and Pakistan to stop all further tests and join the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty unconditionally, refrain from weaponising, that is placing their nuclear weapons on delivery systems.