MOSCOW, July 8 (RIA Novosti) - Italy is unlikely to be expelled from the G8 and replaced by Spain, although it has been sloppy with preparations for the upcoming G8 summit this week, a leading correspondent at an Italian daily said on Wednesday.
Leonardo Coen, a chief correspondent at the La Repubblica bureau in Moscow, said in an interview with RIA Novosti that Italy still plays an important strategic role in a number of global regions and is a valuable U.S. ally.
"I do not believe that Italy will either leave the Group of Eight or be expelled based on economic and market reasons and the strategic role it has been, and is still playing, in the Balkans, the Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan," he said commenting on an article published by The Guardian earlier in the week.
The British daily said the United States and Britain were extremely dissatisfied with preparations for the summit, which Italy as the G8 presiding country this year was supposed to organize, but Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government, the paper stated, had failed to do this.
"The behind-the-scenes grumbling has gone as far as suggestions that Italy could be pushed out of the G8 or any successor group. One possibility being floated in European capitals is that Spain, which has higher per capita national income and gives a greater percentage of GDP in aid, would take Italy's place," the British daily reported.
Commenting on the report, Coen said Italy "is a 'valuable U.S. ally.' Moreover I do not believe that Spain will bypass Italy since its economic performance is not good enough," he said.
"However it is true that there currently is a political anomaly in Italy and that Berlusconi is absolutely disastrous for Italy's interests. At least that is my humble opinion. This opinion is shared by society, as well as the face of democratic forces in Italy," the correspondent said.
Recent media reports have focused on scandals surrounding Berlusconi's personal life and the women who attended his parties rather than on preparations for the summit's agenda.
Berlusconi has come under pressure in Western media over the summit's last-minute preparations, delays to rebuilding work in the quake-hit province, and the country's failure to fulfill previous summit pledges on foreign aid.
The summit venue, Coen said, in the quake-hit Italian mountain town of L'Aquila was also not a good idea and carried organizational problems.
"The selection of a venue to host the G8 summit in L'Aquila is nothing but a dramatic gesture, which, however, carries organizational risks, since there is still danger of underground tremors occurring like those that destroyed the city several months ago," he said.
Italy's decision to move the summit to L'Aquila, to boost local reconstruction, has come under widespread criticism, as the aftershocks continue. Italian seismologists have registered 15 tremors with magnitudes ranging from 1 to 2.8 on the Richter scale since midnight, according to the Italian ANSA news agency.
