Are Group of Eight days numbered?

The Group of Eight industrialised powers, ineffectual in the face of the worldwide finance crisis, is slowly losing its grip on the global economy and now faces calls for its abolition.

The G8 - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US - has done little more than issue statements of principle since the start of the crisis last September, leaving the heavy-lifting to the broader Group of 20.

It was the G20, which in addition to the G8 includes such emerging market powerhouses as Argentina, Brazil, China, India and South Africa, that confronted the crisis head on at an April summit in London.

"As far as we can tell, no substantive results have come out of the G7-G8 meetings for many years," said Richard Portes, a researcher at the London School of Economics.

The G8, whose leaders are to meet between tomorrow and Friday in Italy, began as an informal grouping in 1975, when it was known as the G7 before the inclusion of Russia.

Mr Portes said the G8 has now "become irrelevant to most of the major issues."

"It cannot deal with the environment, trade, international finance without bringing in China, India, Brazil or South Africa."