LONDON (AFP) — Prime Minister Gordon Brown is to host a summit of some 20 world leaders and key figures to discuss "progressive" governance, after a conference on the issue in London Friday, officials said.
South African President Thabo Mbeki, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and former US president Bill Clinton are among participants at the summit of broadly centre-left leaders outside London on Saturday, said Downing Street.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy and national leaders from Australia, Chile, Cyprus, Ghana, Italy, Liberia, Lithuania, New Zealand, Norway and Slovakia are also scheduled, according to a participants' list released by Downing Street.
In a speech pre-released on video ahead of the conference Friday, and the "progressive governance summit" on Saturday, Brown called for the development of a form of "globalisation that is fair and sustainable for all."
The conference brings together some 300 leaders, officials and experts in a location outside London which has so far not been disclosed. When the summit was last held in Britain it was in Bagshot, south of the capital.
The conference is organised by the Policy Network, which describes itself as "an international thinktank dedicated to promoting progressive policies and the renewal of social democracy."
The idea for the summit was launched by Clinton in 1999, when he was still in office. The first one was held in Berlin in 2000, before Stockholm in 2002, London in 2003, Budapest in 2004 and Johannesburg in 2005.
Brown will host it after returning from Bucharest, where he has been attending the NATO summit.
The 2008 meeting will focus on globalisation, climate change and poverty.
"Achieving an inclusive globalisation, one that can combine economic dynamism with social justice in a sustainable way for all, is the key political challenge facing this generation of leaders and politicians," Brown said in a video posted on the website of the Guardian daily.
- Live webcast of conference: http://mediazone.brighttalk.com/event/PolicyNetwork/9aa42b3188-1421-intro
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