Leaders of the G-8 industrialised nations and a host of emerging powers meet until Friday in the city of L'Aquila. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
L'AQUILA (Italy) - GROUP of Eight (G-8) leaders gathering here on Wednesday faced deepening crises in Iran and China and a warning that the worst political and social effects of the global economic downturn are still to come.
Focus on shoring up global economy
GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday she would speak to China's Mr Hu Jintao about the worsening ethnic violence, in which at least 156 people have been killed, on the summit's margins.
Western leaders have plans to push the post-election crisis in Iran to the top of the agenda despite the reservations of China and Russia.
G-8 talks traditionally bring together the eight leading economies - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States - but much of the discussion will be expanded to include emerging powers such as China and India.
Police made around 40 arrests as anti-globalisation demonstrators hurled bottles at riot squad officers and set fire to tyres in central Rome.
L'AQUILA - GROUP of Eight leaders kick off talks Wednesday on issues ranging from the global financial crisis to climate change to the situations in Iran and Xinjiang, China.
Here is a rundown of the main agenda items for the three-day meeting in the earthquake-hit central Italian city of L'Aquila:
Leaders of the G-8 industrialised nations and a host of emerging powers meet until Friday in the city of L'Aquila, which was devastated in April by an earthquake that killed nearly 300 people.
But as the leaders began arriving, World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy warned them that 'the worst of the crisis in social terms is still to come, which means that the worst of the crisis in political terms is still to come'.
Mr Lamy said he would stress the need to resist protectionist tendencies when he meets leaders at the summit.
The build-up to the summit has been marred by increasingly lurid reports about Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's private life, who dismissed a stream of newspaper allegations as 'all lies' in an eve-of-summit press conference.
'They are all lies, from the underage girls onward,' Mr Berlusconi told a news conference when he was asked whether the scandals that have been dogging him since April would cloud the summit.
The meeting begins with a working luncheon at 7 pm (1100 GMT) in a heavily fortified police training college on the outskirts of the devastated town.
With aftershocks still being felt, and only days after a tremor hit 4.1 on the Richter Scale, officials have drawn up plans to evacuate the leaders and cancel the summit in the event of a similar quake.
The talks will also focus on emerging political crises in China's Xinjiang region, Iran and Honduras. -- AFP.
