An extraordinary row has broken out at the G8 summit after Italian aides were accused of spying on secret meetings between other countries' leaders.

A team has been listening in through headphones on private sessions between various heads of state.

Diplomatic meetings are traditionally held in the greatest secrecy to ensure they are kept confidential.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, pictured with and U.S President Barack Obama

A spy row has erupted at the G8 summit after it emerged Italian aides had spied on bilateral meetings but Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, pictured with and U.S President Barack Obama, has denied the claims

Both conventional note-taking and recording are banned. Instead each leader is accompanied by an aide - known as the Sherpa - who relays messages to those outside the room through a digital pen.

This contains a camera and wireless transmitter. Pictures are automatically taken of the user's writing and then transmitted.


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In addition, images from the meetings are also broadcast on a video scene without sound.
Digital pens

Messages to those outside the room are usually relayed through a digital pen

Delegates' mouths are blacked out so words cannot be lip-read.

But the Italians have breached strict protocol by covertly listening in on the meetings as well.

It seems the operation has already raised concern among the host nation.

A leaked memo warns the team responsible for the surveillance to ensure that no one else found out about the operation.

'Pay attention not to tell the other delegations about our facility, otherwise they will all want it and that is not possible,' it read.

Mr Berlusconi's spokesman Marco Ventura has denied there was an audio link.

'What they say remains in the room,' he said.

'There is no channel of communication between the leaders and the outside, except for the digital pens.

'There will not be any sort of secret channel between the president of the G8 different from the others.'

There is only one occasion when previous occasion when secrecy at the G8 has been breached.

That was when a microphone picked up an exchange between George Bush and Tony Blair at St Petersburg in 2006.

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