(7 Jul 2001)
1. "Villa Madama", Italian foreign ministry building
2. Cars driving up to villa and delegates entering
3. Japanese officials waiting outside villa
4. Japanese delegation led by minister Masajuro Shiokawa arriving
5. Flags of G7 nations
6. French delegation arriving with Laurent Fabius
7. Boxes being carried into the villa
8. Cutaway of media
9. British Chancellor, Gordon Brown arriving
10. Cutaway of media
11. Various of photo opportunities of delegates in garden of Villa Madama
12. Media outside villa
13. Various of delegation meeting informally in villa garden
STORYLINE:
Finance ministers of the Group of Seven (G-7) gathered in Rome on Saturday for a meeting which is being seen as a curtain raiser for the G-8 Heads of State summit in Genoa later this month.
The meeting comes at the end of a week which has seen a lot of downward pressure on international money markets.
But the two items on the ministers agenda are 'Fighting abuses of the global financial system' and strengthening 'Multilateral Development Banks'.
Meantime, the U-S and Europe face the task of reaching an agreement as to how to encourage world recovery and the market growth.
The blocking of the proposed merger between General Electric and Honeywell by the European Union is also expected to be discussed.
And with mass demonstrations expected at Genoa on July 20, the summit agenda will likely include how to deal with the opponents of globalisation.
The G-7 was created in 1975 with the objective of setting up a high-level, relatively informal forum to discuss macroeconomic and monetary issues.
Its members are France, the U-S and U-K, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada, however, Russia, the European Commission and the European Central Bank all had delegations at Saturday's meeting.
Russia has since become part of the larger G8, but financial issues continue to be discussed within the original group.
World Bank president James Wolfensohn was also present at the Rome meeting.
Last April, the G-7 agreed upon a concerted intervention on the foreign exchange markets to contain the depreciation of the Euro, a move which has been only partially successful.
The G-7 also intervenes in the resolution of financial crises, preparing financial aid packages in collaboration with the I-M-F.
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