Washington: The G8 summit that President George W. Bush and seven other world leaders are attending next weekend in Russia is often billed as a gathering of the world's leading economic powers. It is not.

For example, China, now the world's fourth-largest economy and the nation with the most influence over renegade North Korea, is not a member.

Neither is India, the world's largest democracy and one of its fastest-growing economies.

Nor is South Korea, Brazil, Mexico or Spain, each with a larger economy than G8 member Russia.

In fact, Spain recently inched past member Canada as the world's No 8 economy, according to a World Bank tabulation.

Often officials from developing nations are invited as observers to the summit but have no formal roles.

Among those invited to this year's gathering is Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Critics view the annual economic summit as a Cold War relic that needs to be reconstituted.

It was formed in the 1970s, but economic dynamics are far different three decades later. The astonishing growth of some Asian nations and parts of Latin America have altered the math.

Yet expanding or changing the membership is not on this year's agenda, nor is it likely to be on next year's.

Few officials from member nations seem eager to talk about the subject.

White House aides insist the president is more focused on substantive issues.

Igor Shuvalov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's top summit adviser, acknowledges that Russia lags behind the other seven members in terms of current economic output. But stay tuned, he says.

"We believe the importance of Russia in our global world will change. We have very talented people and well-educated labour. We have oil and gas," he said.

"We will develop very quickly as one of the major G8 countries."

'Stronger'

Even now, Russia is economically "stronger than some G8 members," Shuvalov asserted without offering backup data. "I don't want to name those countries," he said.

What is now known as the G8 was formed in 1975 as the Group of Major Industrialised Democracies.

At the time, it consisted of the United States, Japan, Britain, France and Germany, undisputedly the world's five biggest economic powers at the time. Italy was added in 1976, Canada in 1977 and Russia in 1998.

The group holds annual summits. Economic themes are supposed to prevail, but often are overshadowed by events of the day and global politics.

Last year's summit in Scotland was jolted by multiple terrorist bomb blasts on London's transit system.

This year's session probably will dwell on North Korea's recent barrage of missile tests and the nuclear aspirations it shares with Iran.

Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International and an expert on economic summitry, advocates expanding the G8 to include other modern economic powers, especially China.