G8 street clashes between students and police in Rome

Students have clashed with riot police in Rome ahead of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations meeting in Italy. The three-day summit, which starts on Wednesday, is being held in the city of L'Aquila, which was hit by a huge quake earlier this year, to boost the local economy and reconstruction efforts. Large metal bins and tree branches were dragged into the middle of roads to block traffic, while riot police responded with tear gas. Protesters with covered faces and helmets blocked roads and set fire to rubbish bins near one the capital's universities. A police spokesman said 36 people were arrested, including nine foreigners. While the anti-globalisation movement has lost momentum in the past years, the memory of massive anti-G8 demonstrations and violence is still fresh in Italy. In 2001, around 100,000 protesters descended on Genoa during the G8 summit to champion a variety of causes, from debt relief to the environment. A small group turned violent, torching cars, smashing windows of stores and banks and hurling paving stones and bottles at police, who used tear gas and clubs to battle back. Police faced widespread accusations of brutality and incompetence for their handling of street protests. Scores of foreigners were among those detained. This year, security is much tighter, with thousands of policemen being deployed. The world leaders arrive in L'Aquila, a medieval city in the Apennine mountains, shortly before the opening of the summit at lunch time on Wednesday. During this year's summit, G8 leaders are expected to push for common positions on promoting democracy in Iran, combating climate change and co-ordinating their exits from huge government stimulus measures. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has boasted that 90 per cent of the world economy will be represented by 39 nations at the G8's annual three-day summit. But only the main eight - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US - enjoy status as full agenda-setting participants. The others - including the world's five largest emerging economies, who meet separately on the first day Wednesday, and nine African nations - join the main forum later mostly on topics already covered by the core eight. Despite its political and economic clout, there is an increasing acknowledgement, even among some of its leaders, that the G8 is too narrow for big political and economic decision-making.

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ITN | July 7, 2009

Tags:. .bins. .agenda. .environment. .tree. .acknowledgement