Berlin - The Group of Eight (G8) is to discuss a declaration condemning the conduct of the recent presidential election in Zimbabwe put forward by Britain, when it meets in Japan next week, German government officials said Thursday. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, would not be drawn on the content of the declaration, but indicated Germany would back British efforts to put further pressure on Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe.
Iran's uranium enrichment programme and the recent progress in the dispute between the international community and North Korea on its nuclear programme were also high on the political agenda of the summit that starts Monday in Toyako on Hokkaido Island, they said.
The G8 leaders are also to discuss food and oil prices, drawing the Outreach Five - Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa - as well as other African countries into their discussions.
Among the financial issues on the agenda are the turmoil caused on international markets by the US subprime mortgage crisis, the function of rating agencies and the role of sovereign wealth funds.
Interest rates, the foreign exchange market and inflation would come up for discussion, the officials said, pointing to double-digit inflation in some developing countries.
But a senior official stressed that there would be no call to any central bank aimed at influencing rate policy.
The G8 would express support for concluding "with urgency" the current stalled Doha Round of World Trade Organization (WTO) talks, a senior official said.
The German officials said other members of the G8 had come round to Germany's view that greater transparency was needed in financial markets and that institutions like hedge funds had to be more open and to be regulated more.
As host of the last G8 summit in Heiligendamm in June last year, Germany tried to push these issues, but failed in the face of opposition from the United States and Britain. The subprime crisis broke in August, just months after the summit.
