Photo: The Group of Eight Gets Together

Leaders from the Group of Eight -- which includes the United States, Germany, Japan, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Russia -- gathered Wednesday in the central Italian city of L'Aquila for their annual summit meeting. The leaders are discussing issues including stimulus plans to bolster the global economy, measures to curb global warming and security issues in North Korea and Iran.

The pictured attendees, from left to right, are: Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper , U.S. President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Sweden's Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

The summit will also discuss ways to expand the Group of Eight, given the notion that the world's most-industrialized nations can no longer claim leadership on the global political and economic agenda.