Obama and Brown join G8 in Italy
- 00:01:18
- ITN
Obama and Brown join G8 in Italy
The world's most powerful leaders are gathering for the G8 summit in an an Italian earthquake zone. The three-day meeting of the world's richest countries is taking place in the town of L'Aquila, where damage is still clearly visible from a quake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale which killed almost 300 in April. Aftershocks measuring more than 4.0 have continued as recently as Friday, and the Italian organisers have put plans in place to evacuate leaders to Rome in the case of a serious tremor. But officials have brushed off any suggestion of danger to the 20-plus heads of government, including US President Barack Obama, who will attend. Italian president Silvio Berlusconi, who is chairing the G8 this year, switched the summit venue from Sardinia to show solidarity with quake victims and has faced criticism for the supposedly chaotic preparation for the event, but UK officials insisted it had been "professionally run". The meetings will be dominated by the global recession, with Britain seeking progress on the agreements reached at the G20 summit in London in April to reform the international financial system and pump billions into the world economy. Ahead of the summit, Mr Brown said the international community must maintain its focus on restoring lending by banks, reining in oil prices - which have risen by 75 per cent this year - and fighting protectionism. Britain will hope to receive strong support in its current stand-off with Iran over a detained embassy worker, and leaders will also look at the prospects for nuclear weapons reductions following talks between Mr Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. On Thursday, G8 nations Britain, the US, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Japan and Russia will be joined by the "plus five" group of emerging economies China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa to discuss climate change and development. President Obama will chair the Major Economies Forum, comprising the world's biggest carbon emitters and also including Australia, Indonesia, South Korea and the EU, in a meeting designed to pave the way for a post-Kyoto agreement on action to halt global warming at Copenhagen in December. No agreement is expected this week, but Britain hopes L'Aquila will act as a springboard for agreement later in the year on 50 per cent cuts in CO2 by 2050.
ITN | July 8, 2009
