Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who takes over the G8`s rotating presidency next year, insisted Sunday that the Group of Eight industrialised nations remains relevant despite the rise of the Group of 20.

GENOA, Italy, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in the northwestern Italian city of Genoa on Saturday in support of anti-globalisation activists being prosecuted over riots at a 2001 G8 summit.

Protesters also demanded 'the truth' in connection with the death of a demonstrator killed by an auxiliary police officer during the rioting six years ago.

Sentences of between eight and 15 years have been recommended for 25 protesters over events related to the riots.

NEW YORK, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) - The world's eight most industrialized countries on Wednesday condemned the Myanmar military junta's violent crackdown on mass pro-democracy protests and warned the ruling generals that they would be held accountable for their actions.

'They are deeply troubled by the situation and condemned all forms of violence against peaceful demonstrators,' an aide to German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after a meeting of the group's top diplomats.

BERLIN, Sept 25, 2007 (AFP) - Rock star Bono on Tuesday urged wealthy nations to step up donations to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria 'aggressively' at a major donor meeting in Berlin this week.

'When something works this well it deserves to be scaled up -- aggressively. No more excuses for under-funding this most high-minded public health mechanism,' the U2 singer said in a statement released by his Africa advocacy group DATA.

MONROVIA, Sept 19, 2007 (AFP) - The world's eight most industrialised countries are giving war-ravaged Liberia more than 300 million dollars to help clear its external debt arrears, the government said on Wednesday.

'G8 countries have announced a contribution of 324.5 million dollars (232 million euros) in Special Drawing Rights (SDR),' said a statement.

'The amount will go towards financing the cost of clearing Liberia's arrears at the International Monetary Fund (IMF),' it added.

The contribution amounts to 60 percent of the total debt Liberia owes the IMF.

BERLIN, Sept 11, 2007 (AFP) - A 20-nation meeting in Berlin has helped lay the foundation for negotiations in Bali in December about a new climate change treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, a UN official said Tuesday.

'We have laid the foundation for formal talks,' the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Yvo de Boer, said in Berlin.

BERLIN, Sept 10, 2007 (AFP) - UN global warming envoy Gro Harlem Brundtland warned here on Monday that time was running out for rich and poor nations alike to ride to the rescue of Earth's stressed climate system.

'The interlocking challenges of climate change and clean energy are two of the most pressing, urgent and difficult global issues that we face together,' she said in a speech to a meeting of Group of Eight (G8) ministers in Berlin.

BERLIN, Sept 10, 2007 (AFP) - UN climate change envoy Gro Harlem Brundtland opened a G8 meeting on global warming here on Monday with a plea for the developing world to agree to binding goals on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Brundtland said the political deals of the Group of Eight and the European Union on reducing carbon emissions were useless unless big emitters like China and India, which refuse to accept binding targets, changed their stance.

BERLIN, Sept 9, 2007 (AFP) - A grouping of former heads of state will present a plan to G8 environment ministers meeting here Tuesday aimed at breaking the impasse between rich and poor countries over global warming.

'We have agreed on a very complete document, a plan that could be adopted for post-Kyoto, to see how we might progress after 2012,' said former Chilean minister Ricardo Lagos.

BEIJING, Aug 31, 2007 (AFP) - Beijing responded positively Friday to a call by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to expand the Group of Eight industrialised nations to include China and other developing nations.

'As a coordinating mechanism for developed nations, the G8 has played an important role in the world's political and economic affairs,' a brief statement issued by the foreign ministry said.