US, France clash over G8 expansion

Jul 7, 2008, 5:02 GMT

Toyako, Japan - The United States and France clashed Monday over plans to accommodate India, China and other large developing countries into the Group of Eight (G8) of industrialized countries, according to Japanese media reports quoting officials from both sides.

In an interview given to Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper prior to his departure for Japan, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said G8 annual summits should also include China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa.

These five countries already attend G8 summits, but they hold separate meetings as part of the Outreach groups and are known as the G5.

Sarkozy said their inclusion into regular G8 meetings would help promote dialogue with emerging nations.

'The G8 needs to adapt to the 21st century,' he said.

'It needs to expand to demonstrate its fairness in decision making,' Sarkozy added.

But the proposal was promptly rejected by the United States.

'We are not for enlargement,' Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House's National Security Council, told Kyodo News on Monday.

Japan has already made it clear that the current G8 format should remain unchanged.

The G8 countries are Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Canada, Japan and the United States.

This year's summit opened on Monday in the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.