G20 to hold Oct summit on Afghanistan: Italy

Italian leader Mario Draghi announced Wednesday the G20 world economic powers will hold a summit on Afghanistan next month in a bid to avert a humanitarian disaster.

"There will be an extraordinary G20 summit on Afghanistan on 12 October," Draghi told reporters. "We want to see if it's possible for the 20 richest countries in the world to have common objectives."

Rome, which holds the rotating presidency of the G20 forum, has been seeking to widen the global discussion on the Afghan crisis to countries including Russia and China.

"I hear endlessly that a humanitarian catastrophe is about to happen because Afghanistan has no support from the rest of the world," Draghi said.

"I think it's the duty of the world's richest countries to do something to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe," he added.

The summit will also look at what measures the international community can take "to stop Afghanistan from again becoming a hotbed of international terrorism".

The gathering will be open to other participants including the United Nations, the Netherlands, Spain, and Qatar, he added. It is likely the Afghanistan summit will be held by video-link.

G20 heads of state or government are already scheduled to attend in person the main G20 summit in Rome on 30 and 31 October.