The Group of Eight major nations will establish a coordination mechanism on information technology when their leaders gather for the July 21-23 summit in Okinawa Prefecture, G8 officials said Tuesday.
The eight nations also intend to highlight conflict prevention based on an initiative to be hammered out by the nations' foreign ministers during their July 12-13 meeting in Miyazaki. Aimed at preventing the flow of small firearms, the initiative will be endorsed by G8 leaders during the Okinawa summit, the officials said.
The two initiatives were put on the summit agenda during a two-day meeting of "sherpas" — personal representatives of G8 leaders responsible for preparing documents and other details for the annual summit — that ended Tuesday in Karuizawa.
The sherpas also held a meeting to prepare for the Group of Seven meeting of finance ministers on July 8 in Fukuoka.