Italy's outgoing premier Giuseppe Conte was due on Monday to hold talks at the G7 summit in Biarritz, France with his UK counterpart Boris Johnson on Britain's planned exit from the European Union, and to meet Australian prime minister Scott Morrison.
The meetings were scheduled to take place on the third day of the tense summit, where Brexit and the US and China's escalating trade war and are among an array of global issues on the agenda.
A session on climate, biodiversity and oceans was being attended on Monday morning by the G7's leaders and its African partners, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ruanda and Senegal, the leaders of Australia, India, Chile and Spain and international organisations including OECD, the World Bank and the African Union, Conte's office stated.
Conte and the other G7 leaders - US president Donald Trump, France's president Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Canada's premier Justin Trudeau, Japanese premier Shinzo Abe and Johnson - were then due to attend a working lunch with chief executives of major companies operating in the digital sector.
The leaders of South Africa, Australia, Chile, Indian and the OECD were also slated to attend the working lunch, according to Conte's office.
Macron said on Monday that G7 leaders were nearing an accord at the summit to help fight fires that have devastated the Amazon rainforest in Brazil - another issue high on the summit agenda and which has stoked international tension.
Conte earlier held talks with Egypt's president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi and with South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa on the sidelines of the summit, which began at the weekend.
