Italian PM wants G14 to resolve global crisis

The G8 could not solve the global issues alone, "and we need an expanded forum like G14", Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said in a statement issued after the second day's meeting at L'Aquila in Italy, yesterday.

''The G8 is no longer the tool best fitted to presenting a world economic strategy'' for addressing and settling the global governance issues, so ''we have created in the G14 a consolidated forum representing over 80 per cent of the world economy, and it has encountered a universal will to keep it going,'' Berlusconi said.

The G5 countries include Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa.

The five emerging economies already had met on the first day of the meeting for a working session parallel with the G8 proceedings and paving the way for the meeting with the eight major world leaders.

He stressed that the format for the day's meetings constituted ''the ideal structure for true debate.''

The heads of state of the G8 and G5 countries plus Egypt had, for the first time, issued a joint statement, approving the global agenda: new rules for the economy and the finance market, a resumption of the granting of credit, getting the Doha talks back off the ground and a strong joint drive to help the poor countries.