G8 hosts deny 'eavesdropping' claims

Organisers today denied a claim that the current G8 president Silvio Berlusconi had arranged for secret eavesdropping on the summit discussions.

Elaborate arrangements are normally put in place at the annual talks to ensure confidentiality, with no recordings or notes taken of leaders’ conversations and no contact allowed with aides outside the room except by a digital pen, which can transmit scribbled notes electronically.