Brown flies to G8 with downbeat message
Wednesday, 8 July 2009 12:00 AM
By politics.co.uk staff
Gordon Brown will travel to Italy today to attend the G8 summit, with a stark message of caution for world leaders.
The prime minister will stress that unpredictable rises in the oil price threaten to hinder economic recovery and could plunge the world into a new recession.
He will also cite risks from falling trade, unemployment and continued instability in the banking sector as reasons to be cautious about the tentative signs of economic recovery on offer.
But oil is foremost among the concerns of the British delegation.
"We have to ensure the oil market does not get ahead of itself and choke off the global economy," a British official said.
Having fallen to $33 a barrel in December, oil is now back above $60, and Mr Brown wants a set price range for the commodity, a move likely to be forcefully opposed by oil-producing nations.
The G8 is expected to formally back the International Energy Forum as a way of stimulating debate and cooperation between oil-producing and oil-consuming nations.
There may also be moves to establish common international standards on the trading of oil.
Delegates are still concerned by the decision of Silvio Berlusconi, Italian prime minister, to move the summit to L'Aquila, where 300 people were recently killed in an earthquake.
Contingency plans are in place to move the world leaders to Rome if there are any further aftershocks, such as those recently experienced in the area, and Mr Berlosconi's move has been criticised as a political gesture.
The world leaders, including Mr Brown, will be staying in a converted police college building, derided as barracks by some commentators.
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