WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States, host of this year's G8 summit, plans to break with decades of tradition and not convene two ministerial meetings that have been key to preparations for the annual gathering of leaders of the world's industrialized nations, senior US officials said.
The officials, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said Washington had decided to scrap pre-summit meetings of Group of Eight foreign and environmental ministers in a bid to streamline the meeting process.
"At this time, the United States plans to host two meetings of G8 ministers: justice/home affairs and treasury/finance," said a senior aide to US President George W. Bush, who will host his fellow G8 leaders in June at Sea Island, a resort in the southern US state of Georgia.
Finance ministers from the grouping are to meet next month in Florida to prepare for the summit, while the justice ministers' meeting has not yet been scheduled, officials said.
But there are no plans for a stand-alone meeting of foreign ministers, a pre-G8 summit staple since 1984, or of environment ministers, who have gathered annually since 1994 before the leaders' meeting, the officials said.
"This is an effort to try to simplify and streamline the process," said a State Department official familiar with US planning for the summit.
"Over the years, the G8 agenda has broadened; it's gone from five to eight members, and the number of meetings has proliferated to the point where their value is sometimes questionable," the official said.
"The more complicated it gets and the more of an administrative burden it becomes, the less effective these meetings are," the official added.
The officials said it was possible the meetings could be added to the agenda in the coming weeks but there were currently no plans to do so.
"Should the Sea Island Summit agenda require it, other ministerial meetings could be added," the Bush aide said.
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