L'Aquila (Italy), July 10 (DPA) French President Nicolas Sarkozy is pushing for an expansion of the Group of Eight (G8).

'The G8 are no longer representative enough to manage the economic crisis,' Sarkozy said Thursday in L'Aquila, Italy, after the close of the second day of the summit of the world's seven leading industrialised democracies plus Russia.

Major emerging economies including China and India must be brought in for permanent membership, Sarkozy said. France, which takes over the rotating G8 leadership in 2011, intends to create a G14 group, he said.

'It's unavoidable,' he said. 'We must include these countries in discussions from the very beginning. There's no way around it.'

Sarkozy expressed support for similar efforts to expand the UN' most important decision-making body, the Security Council.