Going before reporters here in Italy, President Obama called his first G-8 summit “highly productive,” even as he conceded that summit leaders didn’t agree on every issue and not every problem was solved. Obama cited “meaningful” progress on issues like climate change and nuclear proliferation and disputed reports that the summit had failed to meet expectations by not issuing sanctions on Iran for the “appalling events” in the wake of last month’s disputed election there.

“This notion that we were trying to get sanctions or that this was a forum in which we could get sanctions is not accurate. What we wanted is exactly what we got—a statement of unity and strong condemnation,” Obama said, noting that the statement was even more important because Russia, a key trading partner of Iran, had signed onto the declaration. “My hope is, is that the Iranian leadership will look at the statement coming out of the G8 and recognize that world opinion is clear.”

The president said the leaders will re-evaluate Iran’s behavior at the upcoming G-20 summit in Pittsburgh in late September. Speaking of that, Obama acknowledged criticism of the summit process and said he had his own beefs with how things work. “There is no doubt we have to update and refresh and renew,” the president said, noting that many of these institutions are simply outdated. He noted that he had attended “a lot of these” during his six months in office and said he supported “streamlining them and making them more effective.” “We need to make sure that they’re as productive as possible,” Obama said.