DEAUVILLE, France - Focus over a return to 1967 borders as a condition for peace between Israel and Palestine misses some of the other points the U.S. is trying to make in how to achieve an end to that historic conflict, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Friday.

Talks on unrest in the Middle East and North Africa have dominated the G8 summit in France.

While the discussions have largely been about the economic and political impact of recent uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere, addressing the older conflict in the region was revived ahead of the talks, thanks to a landmark address this month by U.S. President Barack Obama.

In it, Obama urged that a Palestinian state be based on 1967 borders -- before the Six Day War in which Israel occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. It marked a significant shift in the U.S. position and infuriated Israel.

Obama's remarks were called "courageous" by French President Nicolas Sarkozy at a news conference Thursday, but Harper didn't go that far in his first public comments on the speech.

Obama's speech needs to be looked at as a whole, Harper said.

"President Obama emphasized that in a two-state solution, one of those states has to be a Jewish state and conceded to be a Jewish state, another is that the Palestinian state must be a demilitarized state," Harper told a small news conference after the final working session of the G8 meetings on Thursday.

"So I think these and other messages are important messages to deliver and I say I think if you look at the statement in its totality it was very balanced and it is certainly something that Canada can support."

Canada, however, is not signalling that it will be supporting another initiative to bring stability to region.

France has offered Egypt up to $250 million a year in development aid and Britain pledged to expand its aid to the Middle East and North Africa as well, in an apparent effort to pressure G-8 partners into coughing up money, too.

"We're demonstrating that there is a chance for people in North Africa to choose their own future and their own freedom rather than have to put up with appalling dictators like Gadhafi," Prime Minister David Cameron told reporters.

But Harper is sticking by a multilateral approach.

In 2009, the Canadian government upped its contribution to international development banks by $4.3 billion, bringing the total that has been contributed since then to over $12 billion, officials said.

"I think most of the aid that will be delivered quite frankly will be done through multilateral channels, that's where Canada's focus is likely to be," Harper said.

"I think that's the best way to get a co-ordinated international response," he added.

The International Monetary Fund is ready to loan up to $35 billion to oil-importing countries in the Middle East and North Africa, as part of its pledge to help the region meet goals on growth, stability, job creation and improving living standards.

The figure, included in a report on the region prepared for the G8 summit, says that the overall need in terms of external financing by Tunisia, Egypt and other non-oil producing countries in the region could be more than $160 billion over the 2011-2013 period.

On Friday, the leaders of Egypt, Tunisia and the Arab League will join the summit discussions as G8 leaders move toward the final declaration of the Deauville summit.

A draft version under discussion at the summit urges Libya and Syria to halt violence but contains no specific sanctions against the two countries, according to two officials, who spoke with the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the document is still under discussion.

On the sidelines of the G8 on Thursday, Harper held several bilateral meetings, including one with Obama.

They agreed the two countries would have a plan by this summer on how to achieve a security perimeter.