ROME, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Agriculture and food security will be among next year's priorities of Group of Eight (G8) when Italy will take the bloc's rotating chairmanship, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Tuesday.

    After meeting with his visiting Japanese counterpart Yasuo Fukuda, Berlusconi said his discussion with the Japanese leader mainly focused on the agenda of the UN-backed food summit -- how to resolve the global food crisis.

    Fukuda agreed to put the topic of agriculture as one of the bloc's priorities, Berlusconi said. The two leaders met on the sidelines of the three-day food summit, which opened here Tuesday.

    According to a communique released by Berlusconi's office, climate change, energy and world food crisis will also top the agenda at this year's upcoming G8 summit, to be held in early Julyin Japan.

    Rome is the last leg of Fukuda's three-nation European tour, which earlier took him to Germany and Britain, where he met with Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Gordon Brown respectively.

    The UN food summit, hosted by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), is the first global response to the recent cycle of hike in food prices.

    More than 100 countries and representatives from several international organizations, including the heads of state or governments from 40 countries, are attending the meet.