Silvio Berlusconi arrived in Beijing on Thursday for the 7th Asian-European Meeting (ASEM), which brings together the heads of the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members and the 27 countries of the European Union, as well as the leaders of China, Japan, South Korea, India, Pakistan and Mongolia.
"Acknowledging the responsibility Italy will have after assuming the next G8 presidency and facing the challenges of the global economic crisis which affects the interests of all countries, I confirm the G8 proposal to create the G14," the Italian ANSA news agency quoted Berlusconi as saying.
Germany, Italy and France have in the past urged expanding the G8 by including China, India, South Africa, Mexico, Egypt and Brazil.
"As a result, the G14 would represent 80% of world's economy and we will be able to adopt decisions assuming that this 'super group' will serve as a management body for the global economy," Berlusconi said.
The G8 comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.
The ASEM meetings in Beijing come three weeks before a gathering of the Group of 20 in Washington on November 15 to examine the world economic situation.
The current global economic crisis broke out after massive defaults on risky housing loans in the United States and spread to Asia and Europe, leading to record losses on financial markets and a liquidity shortage.
Berlusconi said on Thursday that the Washington meeting would hardly fix the existing economic problems but may encourage the participants to "assume their responsibility to control world economic growth ... through guaranteeing their banking systems so they can support business and spending."
