UK’s Cameron sees role for G8 despite rise of G20

The Group of Eight rich nations can still serve a purpose by dealing with strategic issues, while leaving global economic management more to the wider Group of 20, British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday.

Flying back to London from summits of the G8 and G20 in Toronto, Cameron said the G8, which was overtaken in relevance by the G20 during the global credit crisis, could become less formal and focus instead on security and foreign policy.

Britain is due in 2013 to host a summit of the G8 countries, which include the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Russia.

Cameron said this would be an opportunity to change the way the G8 worked, and suggested it also convene on the sidelines of a NATO or United Nations meeting to save money.

"You could make it more focused and strategic, majoring on foreign policy and security issues, while also keeping the particular link to accountability on development aid which is really important," he told journalists aboard his flight.

"You could consider getting rid of the pre-cooked communiqué, to turn it into a proper small strategic discussion," he said. "That would leave the G20 to be the big economic global governance forum, which it now is. The G20 has after all earned its spurs from its vital work on financial regulation and economic co-ordination."

The G20 expands the "rich men's club" of the G8 and includes the big emerging economies China, Brazil and India.

It supplanted the G8 as the group that manages the world economy during the global credit crisis, when then U.S. President George W. Bush summoned its leaders to Washington to forge a common response that helped to calm financial markets.

"I don't think the G8 will die out," Cameron said. "The wealthiest democracies coming together for a strategic discussion, to hammer out a common view on things like Afghanistan, Iran and Middle East peace process is still a really important thing to do."