G-8 greeted skeptically by some in quake zone

L'AQUILA, Italy — At next week's Group of Eight summit, the leaders will stay in a barracks instead of the usual luxury hotel. The road to the site is lined with ghostly houses ruined by the earthquake that hit the central Italian mountain town of L'Aquila three months ago.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi moved the summit from the posh Sardinian island of La Maddalena in a show of support for L'Aquila's stricken population. Not all of the survivors are happy about the decision.

Some are voicing anger at the slow pace of reconstruction and are beginning to question whether the government's decision to move the July 8-10 summit of industrialized democracies and Russia is diverting money, time and manpower from the rebuilding of their shattered homes.

At a roadway roundabout, workers busy themselves building a colorful brick mosaic depicting an eagle, emblem and namesake of L'Aquila, and the ancient Latin motto of a town long-plagued by quakes: "Immota Manet" — It "remains unmoved."

The defiant statement is a morale booster but some survivors wonder if decorations to welcome world leaders are what is most urgently needed in a region with thousands of homeless living in tents.

"What do I care about the G-8? Let's hope they will bring some money to rebuild L'Aquila," says Luciana Circi, a 57-year-old housewife living with her family in a camp set up on an athletics field. "My problems are the lines to eat, to go to the bathroom, no toilet paper, the tents that flood when it rains."

Officials insist the summit is not interfering with relief and reconstruction and that everything being done for the meeting, from improvements to a local airport to the bed that U.S. President Barack Obama will sleep in, will have a use for quake survivors.

Leaders from the G-8 countries and other nations will hold talks on the economic crisis, the violence in Iran, the environment and other global problems at a sprawling police complex in the countryside just outside L'Aquila.

Organizers are also planning visits to the heart of the quake zone and hope the leaders will "adopt" some of the dozens of churches, castles and other cultural treasures in this medieval city that were heavily damaged by the temblor.

The April 6 earthquake leveled entire blocks in L'Aquila and the surrounding Abruzzo region, driving some 54,000 from their homes and killing 296 people.

"There were better things to do here than the G-8," says Sandra Di Renzo, an 18-year-old who volunteers at a kindergarten set up in a tent camp in the ruined village of Coppito, less than a kilometer (mile) from the summit venue. "Rebuilding the city is a priority, soon winter will be here and we are still living in tents."