World leaders gather in Italy for key G8

Chris Otton AFP 07/06/2009 20:30

A worker finishes a brick mosaic of an eagle, L'Aquila's emblem and namesake, on the road to the G-8 summit venue (File)

The world's most powerful leaders gathered in Italy on the eve of a G8 summit aimed at finding common ground on how to tackle the global economic crisis, climate change and turmoil in Iran.

"Everything is ready, I am totally serene," Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told the Italian press as he prepared to welcome leaders of the group of eight (G8) industrialised nations and a host of emerging powers to the city of L'Aquila, devastated in April by an earthquake which killed nearly 300.

The build-up to the three-day summit has been marred both by increasingly lurid reports about Berlusconi's private life and also by safety fears in L'Aquila, north east of Rome, where aftershocks are still being felt.

Officials have drawn up plans to evacuate the leaders in the event of a tremor measuring over four points on the Richter scale.

Only last Friday, a 4.1 magnitude quake struck just one kilometre (half a mile) from the military academy where the gathering is to take place.

The G8 summit traditionally brings together leaders of the eight most industrialised nations -- Italy, the United States, Canada, Russia, Japan, Britain, France and Germany.

But much of the discussion over the course of the week will be expanded to include emerging powers such as China, India and Brazil.

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