French sports minister Marie-George Buffet has appealed for an end to summits like the one in Genoa which has been marred by unprecedented violence and resulted in the death of a protestor.
Alluding to the railings that fence off part of the Italian port of Genoa the minister told RTL radio: "It is necessary to stop these summits which are now more and more enclosed."
"We can not have such a trench between political leaders and fellow citizens whether in France or elsewhere. I want to say: stop, stop, and let state leaders and demonstrators sit down and hold discussions," said Buffet.
"I am not talking about those few who are violent, but of the mass of protesters who have come to say that the world is not as it should be," said the Communist minister.
She said "the states must welcome and talk with the diverse and various movements who are expressing the need for a human face of globalisation and not a globalisation which shatters lives with mass unemployment and increasing inequalities between north and south."
The death of a 23-year-old Italian, shot dead by Italian security forces, has raised fresh questions about the future of international summits, with leaders wondering whether to scale back such gatherings.
AFP