EVIAN, France -- Presidents George W. Bush and Jacques Chirac smiled for the cameras on Sunday but set out divergent views of world order and economic development at a Group of Eight summit overshadowed by their clash over Iraq. The French leader reasserted his vision of a "multipolar world" in which the United States was not the sole dominant power, telling a news conference: "I have no doubt that it enjoys a very broad majority across the world."

Bush got a short handshake and stiff smile from his loudest critic on arrival in Evian, the French spa town on lake Geneva hosting this year's summit of leading industrial democracies, well shielded by thousands of police from rioting anarchists.

Chirac hugged or embraced many other participants, including UN Chief Kofi Annan and leaders of a dozen developing nations he had invited to give the "rich men's club" an alternative view of the planet's economic development needs, AFP said.

Both Bush and Chirac have said the Iraq dispute, in which France led Germany and Russia in opposing U.S. invasion plans, was now history and both sides should look to the future.

He urged Bush to follow his example by inviting developing countries to the next G8 summit. White House Spokesman Ari Fleischer said talk of next year's guest list was premature.

Fleischer made clear the Bush administration still resented French efforts to rein in American power.

"We have an alliance. Allies treat each other as partners without regard to poles. It's not a matter of a multipolar relationship. There's no need for somebody to be between the United States and anybody else," he told reporters.

Bush met Chirac privately on Monday but left Evian the same afternoon, a day before the summit ends, making this what a local newspaper dubbed a "stopover summit", sandwiched in between other high-level meetings in Russia and the Middle East.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators met for the main anti-G8 protest at the French-Swiss border south of Geneva, watched by a massive turnout of French and Swiss riot police.

To evade the protests, the leaders were transported by helicopter or boat from Geneva and Lausanne across Western Europe's largest lake to the luxury hotel above Evian where the June 1-3 summit is being held.