Sarah Brown meets quake-hit families

Sarah Brown was visiting the Italian town of L'Aquila today to meet some of the families whose homes were destroyed in a devastating earthquake three months ago.

Thousands of people evacuated after the quake - measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale - struck in April are still living in tents while work continues on making their homes safe.

No sign of the damage can be seen from behind the high walls of the Finance Ministry Police complex outside L'Aquila in which leader of the G8, including Gordon Brown, are meeting.

But within a matter of miles, houses with collapsing walls and piles of crumbling masonry show the impact of the quake.

And inside the summit venue, walls are decorated with pre-quake pictures of some of the beautiful Renaissance buildings damaged.

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi switched the venue of this week's summit from Sardinia to L'Aquila to show solidarity with victims of the quake.

But there have been complaints that resources have been lavished on preparing the military barracks-style venue to receive the world leaders at a time when people remain homeless nearby.

Mrs Brown had a private audience with the Pope yesterday, then visited the Sant'Egidio Community in Rome to learn about their work fighting HIV/Aids in Africa.

Writing on her blog last night, she spoke of the "poignant" moment on arriving at the community's headquarters in an ancient monastery when she was shown a tiny iron turnstile set into the wall, where poor and unmarried women used to abandon new-born babies to be cared for.

The G8 wives will be joined in L'Aquila today by French president Nicolas Sarkozy's Italian-born wife Carla Bruni, who skipped yesterday's events in Rome in what was widely seen as a snub to Mr Berlusconi, with whom she has previously had spats.