Building and infrastructure work being done in Sardinia ahead of the Group of Eight summit that had been scheduled to take place on the island of La Maddalena ''will remain'', Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Friday.
The minister made his remarks a day after Premier Silvio Berlusconi announced plans to move the summit to the quake-stricken Abruzzo capital L'Aquila.
''In Sardinia the infrastructures are already in place and they will be used in many other ways for public or private initiatives. They will be able to host other international summits,'' Frattini said.
''They are works useful to the Sardinians which will obviously remain. They are not, and were not, just for the G8''.
Frattini said the plan to move the G8 summit, due to take place July 8-12, was based on ''the important issue of economic savings, which will be channelled into reconstruction'' for the quake-hit central Italian region.
But it was also ''to show to the world a model of efficiency and speed in reconstruction and demonstrate that that region, so badly hit, will already be on the road to recovery in July,'' Frattini said.
La Maddalena Mayor Angelo Comiti criticised the decision to move the summit in a radio interview Friday, saying the decision to award the island the honour had been to ''reward'' its contribution to national defence, after it hosted an American naval base for 35 years.
''A premier can't just wake up one morning and decide something like that, which isn't like moving a birthday dinner for 20 schoolfriends,'' he said.
Sardinia Governor Ugo Cappellacci was set to meet Berlusconi on Friday to discuss the issue.
The premier on Thursday said moving the summit would allow savings of 220 million euros which could be spent in reconstruction.
