NAGO, Japan, July 23 (Sunday) Leaders of the Group of Eight major industrialized nations, preparing to end their annual summit today, endorsed global programs to bridge the "digital divide," combat diseases such as AIDS in developing countries and cut crime.

President Clinton squeezed his schedule moving a planned Sunday "picnic" with U.S. troops to 11 p.m. Saturday night and juggling private meetings with other leaders so he could race back to the Middle East negotiations at Camp David today right after the last meeting.

The three-day beachfront summit meeting was to serve political as well as practical purposes: It was a showcase for Okinawa, a venue to represent Asian issues, a political plum for Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and the last such gathering of leaders for Clinton.

Clinton and other leaders declared the summit a success, based largely on the lack of controversy and the sheaf of joint communiques worked out in advance by their staffs.

"This is my last photo, so be serious do this right," Clinton joked with other summit leaders as they lined up for a portrait.

The G-8 members France, Italy, Germany, Russia, Canada, Japan, Britain and the United States met in the backdrop of a generally good world economy. The world leaders, cognizant of what many see as a growing divergence between rich and poor nations, devoted much of their official agenda to programs to try to diminish that gap.

While many of the previous 25 summits have dealt with crises, the talks at this meeting focused on an upbeat development: the movement of normally reclusive North Korea toward greater diplomatic involvement, and its apparent offer to give up missile development in return for help with space launches.

The leaders even offered a rare commendation to North Korea for its "constructive attitude."

While Clinton was met with protests and frequent reminders of Okinawa's opposition to the U.S. military bases on the island, Saturday night was his turn to defend the mission of the 26,000 servicemen stationed here.

"You will never know how many wars you have deterred, how many deaths you have prevented," Clinton told 10,000 to 15,000 servicemen and their families who turned out for a late-night "Barbecue With Bill" at Camp Foster. "But you know how many wars have been fought since the U.S. forces have been stationed here. That number is zero."

But Clinton also admonished them to avoid incidents that inflame local opposition, such as the recent arrest of a Marine on charges of molesting a 14-year-old girl.

"We need to be good neighbors in addition to being good allies," he said. "Each one of us has a personal obligation to do everything we can to strengthen our friendship, and to do nothing to harm it."

"I thought he was right on the mark," said Marine Lance Cpl. Joseph R. Price, listening to the speech among an enthusiastic crowd. "He has motivated everyone."

Clinton's fellow world leaders toasted him as "a great president" at their final dinner Saturday night at a replica of the grand castle that served the royal family of Okinawa for more than 400 years.

Moving down their planned agenda, the leaders pledged to increase the money they spend to combat infectious diseases in developing countries, including AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Japan, the United States, Canada and the World Bank all have announced additional spending for health programs, including efforts to develop an AIDS vaccine.

The leaders endorsed a variety of private and public efforts to reduce the "digital divide" that leaves poor countries behind technologically. They called for the creation of a "DOT Force" a Digital Opportunity Task Force to help bring technology to developing nations.

"If we fail to ensure that all nations have the opportunity to participate fully in the network economy and society, we run the risk that the divide between nations will grow," the leaders said in a statement.

And while those efforts had been planned in advance, one spontaneous suggestion arose in the leaders' discussions: Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed they begin communicating by e-mail. "It was warmly welcomed by all the other leaders," a White House aide reported.

They also promised to adjust the mechanisms to speed up debt relief to poor nations following complaints that a similar pledge in last year's summit had little effect. The leaders applauded Clinton's efforts to find peace in the Middle East, and expressed particular concern about India, Pakistan and the Balkans.

Saturday night, they posed for photographs and dined at the elegant Shurijo Castle, which had been host to Ming Dynasty emissaries and the site of grand banquets for hundreds of years under Okinawa's Ryukyu Kingdom before Japanese rule began in 1879.

The castle is a painstaking replica of the original, which was used as a Japanese army headquarters and destroyed by Allied bombing in the 1945 Battle of Okinawa. Scenes of the G-8 leaders dining amiably reinforced a key purpose of the summit: giving world leaders a chance to meet and deal with bilateral problems.

In such one-on-one meetings, the United States and Japan extended their deregulation talks for a fourth year, as expected, and Clinton pledged to continue a process of consolidating U.S. military bases on Okinawa.

The United States and Russia made small steps to advance their cooperation on missile launch detection and anti-proliferation efforts. But they did not tackle the major disagreement over the United States' proposed National Missile Defense, which Russia and several other G-8 members oppose.

Instead, Clinton and Putin huddled over a proposal Putin carried from North Korea this week in which he said Pyongyang offered to give up its missile development in exchange for international assistance in the launch of satellites. Both Clinton and Putin said the idea was worth exploring further.

Special correspondent Shigehiko Togo contributed to this report.