Rio De Janeiro, Feb 13: French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said that the G8, comprising seven wealthiest countries in the world plus Russia, should be converted into G13, to include Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa.

Sarkozy said this at a meeting with Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in French Guiana on Tuesday.

“The G8 must become something more than that. In the end, even if we do not want to think about anybody else, we must consider there are China, India, Brazil and South Africa,” Sarkozy said.

“The emerging countries have an influence on the world’s economy, as well as the eight countries that currently form the G8,” Sarkozy said in a statement released by Brazil’s state news agency Agencia Brasil.

He reiterated his country’s support for Brazil’s application to be a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

“It is inconceivable to imagine that one can speak of the world’s main issues without consulting a single African country, a single country of South America, as if those two continents did not exist,” Sarkozy said.

President Lula said Brazil and France shared a similar view on the need for the democratisation of international bodies, such as the UN and International Monetary Fund (IMF). (ANI)