Before arriving at the G-8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel toured a nearby village that was devastated by an earthquake in April of this year. She appeared visibly moved as she toured what was left of the village of Onna with Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi.

Merkel, along with the other G-8 leaders, have a long list of issues to deal with, which include the global economy, unrest in China and Iran, North Korea and climate change.

Early reports from the summit say that the major polluting nations have droppped a pledge in the draft declaration to halve global greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050.

Berlusconi proposes food initiative

Berlusconi, who chairs the gathering of leaders, told reporters he hoped the Group of Eight summit attendees would approve $10 billion to $15 billion (7 billion to 11 billion euros) for food aid.

"We hope to approve an initiative for food security in the world," Berlusconi said, adding that he anticipated US President Barack Obama contributing up to a third of the pledge.

The pledge would be called the L'Aquila Food Security Initiative, after the central Italian city where the summit is to take place until Friday.

Leaders set to discuss emerging political crises

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she had planned to speak with Chinese President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of the summit about the ethnic violence that has wracked China's Xinjiang region and left at least 156 people dead.

However the Chinese leader cut short his visit to Italy to return home in the wake of the deadly rioting.

Some leaders had hoped to put the crackdown on post-election protests in Iran at the top of the summit's agenda, but China and Russia continue to view the crisis as an internal Iranian issue.

While Berlusconi said he expected further dialogue on Iran, he conceded that the G-8 leaders did not yet have a common position.

"It still has to be decided what the statement on Iran will be," Berlusconi said at a news conference in Rome. A joint statement is expected Wednesday evening.

av/hf/AFP/AP/dpa/Reuters
Editor: Michael Lawton