G8 puts focus on global security

By CATHERINE FIELD in Paris

Foreign ministers are putting the finishing touches to preparations for next month's G8 summit, which aims at shoring up global security and restoring calm among the world's most powerful countries after the storms unleashed by the Iraqi war.

Secretary of State Colin Powell will be the most senior US official to visit France since Paris and Washington traded fierce diplomatic blows over the conflict.

The G8 meeting "gives ministers an opportunity to consider the main international issues and discuss foreign policy issues before the summit," a French foreign ministry spokesperson said. "This year, international security issues will be the main focus."

The problems will include counter-terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, Iran and North Korea - the two other nations besides Saddam Hussein's Iraq in Bush's famous "axis of evil" - and efforts to restart the Middle East peace process.

The G8 comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US. Heads of state or government are due to meet in the resort town of Evian, southeastern France, from June 1 to 3. They will be enclosed in a security cage patrolled by police, soldiers, undercover agents and helicopters.

The summit has been carefully crafted to repair ties that were torn by the Iraqi war.

France has not relented from its view that the timing and cause of the US-British conflict were wrong, but since victory it has striven to emphasise "pragmatism", fearing it may have dangerously antagonised Washington.

"France has burned too many bridges prudent, modest and, above all, quiet diplomacy are the order of the day," said Dominique Moisi of the French Institute of International Relations.