 The remote location of Gleneagles will help security |
Prime Minister Tony Blair has confirmed that the next G8 summit of the world's leading economies will take place at the Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire. The UK will take over the presidency of the economic forum in 2005 and the leaders of the world's most powerful countries are expected to meet in July.
Mr Blair was speaking at the end of this year's G8 meeting in the US.
He confirmed that the next event would take place in Scotland and problems in Africa would be high on the agenda.
Extra police
Gleneagles has many attractions as the venue for a summit.
It is large enough to cope with world leaders and their entourages and it is relatively remote, making it attractive from a security point of view.
Previous summits have been the target of anti-globalisation protesters.
It is thought that thousands of extra police would be drafted in to provide 24-hour cover for the world leaders.
The G8 leaders come from the US, UK, Canada, Japan, Russia, France, Germany and Italy.
Mr Blair said: "A major part of the G8 at Gleneagles will be the work of the Africa commission, which we have established, and the report back from that.
"Hopefully then we will have a series of actions from the G8 in order to make progress there."
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