Briefly: Fukuda to meet some G-8 chiefs

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda will visit Germany, Britain and Italy to meet the heads of those nations June 1-3 ahead of the Group of Eight summit that Japan will host the following month, government sources said.

During the trip, the prime minister will take part in a conference in Rome on world food security sponsored by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Fukuda will hold talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

He will also meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Rome. Fukuda will almost certainly see those leaders again at the G-8 summit in Lake Toyako, Hokkaido.(IHT/Asahi: May 22,2008)