2009-03-09 

Italy To Host G20 Leaders At July G8 Summit

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Monday that Italy would host leaders of the G20 at the end of a G8 summit in Sardinia in July and that their talks would focus on new rules for the financial system.

"We will have the G20 as well on the third day of talks at La Maddalena (in Sardinia)," he told a conference near Milan.

"On this occasion we will prepare a legal system, new rules to stop the phenomenon of excessive securitisation in the financial system, the use of derivatives that led to this crisis," said Berlusconi. Italy currently chairs the G8.

A top Italian diplomat told Reuters in January Italy would be prepared to expand the G8 summit to include the G20, which is chaired by Britain, if there were a need after the April 2 summit of the G20 in London.

The G8, grouping the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia, tackles global challenges from the economy to the environment. The G20, made up of the top 19 economies plus the European Union, has the task of reviving growth and reforming the financial sector and oversight bodies.