Asia's economic, social and military problems are set to force their way to the top of the agenda at this weekend's G8 summit despite the desire of British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, to focus on global unemployment and crime.
The gathering of world leaders from the Group of Seven countries plus Russia will have to consider a joint response to Japan's ongoing economic slump, Indonesia's civil unrest and India's nuclear missile testing.
Mr Blair attended his first such conference in Denver last year; he left the US city dismayed by what he saw as "declaration diplomacy". With the latest gathering being hosted by Britain in Birmingham, Mr Blair has tried to pare down the agenda that awaits his fellow premiers and presidents when they arrive tonight.
But despite pre-summit gatherings of finance and foreign ministers, declarations on global economics and politics now look certain to dominate proceedings this weekend.
The US and Japan are said to be the only two G8 members calling for immediate economic sanctions against India as punishment for the nuclear tests on Monday and Wednesday. While the gathering is therefore unlikely to agree on sanctions, it may publicly admonish the New Delhi administration.
"I would hope that the participants at the summit would issue a very strong and clear statement condemning the action of India," US Security Adviser, Mr Sandy Berger, said yesterday.
Japan's prime minister, Mr Ryutaro Hashimoto, is likely to face criticism from his colleagues, particularly on Saturday, when the leaders will repair to a country house away from the prying eyes of the press.
Last month, he announced a 16.6 trillion yen (£89 billion) package designed to stimulate the Japanese economy. While he is likely to be criticised for not doing enough, Mr Hashimoto is also sure to call on other G8 countries to redouble their efforts to help other struggling Asian economies.
The summit will also turn its attention to Indonesia. Britain has already made its view clear through its finance minister, Mr Gordon Brown, who met Indonesia's President Suharto last week.
"The economic reform which is necessary to advance the interests of the poor and the unemployed in Indonesia will have to be matched by political reform that respects individual rights, and by social measures that protect the most disadvantaged in the community," Mr Brown said.
The leaders will break off their discussions to watch a video presentation on the high-tech computer battles between international criminals and police. As well as communicating electronically, modern criminal gangs now also steal, defraud, launder money and peddle child pornography using computers, the meeting will hear.
Another item on the agenda is the Millennium Bug the programming glitch that could cause millions of computers to crash on January 1st, 2000. The summit will consider proposals to allocate up to £70 billion to remedy the problem.
