As 15,000 police and troops threw a three-kilometre security cordon around the town of L’Aquila where the G8 summit opens tomorrow, the Government of Silvio Berlusconi was frantically drawing up plans for an alternative venue if the mountainous Abruzzo region is struck again by a powerful earthquake.

Even though Italy said that the G8 leaders would be completely safe, they will be briefed on emergency evacuation plans when they arrive, with 12 helicopters on standby to fly them to Rome if necessary.

In an interview with the newspaper Il Giornale — which he owns — Mr Berlusconi said that there was “absolutely no risk” to the leaders since the venue, the Finance Police barracks at Coppito outside L’Aquila, built in 1992, was earthquake-proof. Mauro Dolce, of the civil protection agency, said the barracks had been built to withstand even a 5.8 magnitude tremor like the one that killed 300 people on April 6 and left 60,000 homeless.

“For the situation to be dangerous there would have to be an earthquake that has never happened at L’Aquila in living memory,” Mr Dolce said.

Just in case, officials have begun to prepare another venue: a police academy in the Flaminio district of Rome, with plans for the leaders and their wives to sleep in Rome hotels. This would be the third venue chosen by the Government. The original site was La Maddalena, an abandoned US naval base in Sardinia, which had been transformed at a cost of €300 million (£258 million), with hotels and a new conference centre.

However, in an impulsive gesture, Mr Berlusconi decided to move the summit to L’Aquila after the earthquake “as a mark of solidarity”. He said that the finance police barracks would be a less lavish, less costly and more suitable setting in times of economic crisis, with security and hospitality at L’Aquila costing €50 million, as opposed to the €200 million budgeted for Sardinia.

Over the past few days, there have been a series of tremors at L’Aquila, including a 4.1 magnitude jolt last Friday that sent residents — including the 25,000 still living in tents — running outside in panic.

The Italian leader and his counterparts will stay in a renovated fivestorey block of officers’ quarters of the barracks, which have a new basketball court for President Obama.

Each leader will have a floor, with four bedrooms and two bathrooms for themselves, their spouses and bodyguards.

Leaders are limited to an entourage of 25, with other members of their teams lodged in hotels in Rome or on the Adriatic coast. Officials say that after the summit, rooms used by the delegations will be given to those made homeless by the April earthquake, with the furniture — including the Obamas’ bed — sold to raise funds for the relief effort.

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