Government Balks at Hosting Another Summit
The violent riots at last month’s Group of 8 summit in Genoa have given Italy second thoughts about hosting a scheduled U.N. food conference in Rome.
The U.N. food agency said it understood Italy’s fears of similar protests at the Nov. 5-9 meeting of heads of state of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s 180 member nations. But it said moving the meeting would be costly and difficult.
Premier Silvio Berlusconi suggested Friday that he didn’t want Italy to hold the summit following Genoa, where protesters torched cars and buildings and police responded by clubbing demonstrators and killing one.
On Saturday, a Foreign Ministry official met with FAO Director General Jacques Diouf to discuss Italy’s concerns, but there was no word on the outcome of the talks.
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