By KUNA,
Paris : French President Nicolas Sarkozy will meet Monday evening with foreign ministers from the powerful Group of Eight (G8), Sarkozy’s office announced here.
The meeting is to precede dinner discussions between the world’s eight most powerful Foreign Ministers who are set to discuss the Libyan conflict, the unrest in a number of other Arab countries and the recent natural catastrophe in Japan, which is one of the G8 countries.
US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton is representing her country at the talks and will meet separately with Sarkozy ahead of the President’s broader talks with the G8 members.
Clinton heads to North Africa on Tuesday, after the Paris meeting.
Diplomats said that they expected a strong communiqu{ concerning the violence in Libya, but it is uncertain whether much forward movement will emerge on the proposal by some to enforce a “no-fly zone” in Libya. Russia, as a prominent G8 and UN Security Council member, has expressed reservations about the proposal and could veto it in the Security Council. So could China, which is not a G8 member.
France is the only G8 member to have officially “recognized” Libya’s opposition National Council for Transition and Sarkozy has even gone as far as mooting the idea of precision and targeted air strikes against forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Sarkozy’s suggestion to EU leaders last week met with mixed reactions, with some EU countries strongly opposed to European action, saying such intervention was a job for NATO and said any intervention must be mandated by the divided Security Council.