However with developing countries India and Brazil set to appear on the sidelines, ministers will also discuss the key issues of tariffs and subsidies during the two-day meeting starting on Friday, ahead of the World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting in Hong Kong.

The G7 will discuss "development issues and they'll discuss economic aspects of trade in the run-up of the Hong Kong meeting" between December 13 and 18, a Treasury spokesman said.

The group of industrialized nations comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States. This year Britain is holding the presidency of the G8, which includes also Russia.

The G7 traditionally holds four meetings per year but has added a fifth to bid farewell to Greenspan. Top White House economist Ben Bernanke, 51, was poised to succeed him as US Federal Reserve chairman.

Greenspan, 79, retires at the end of January after more than 18 years as the most celebrated chairman of the world's most powerful economic institution.

The veteran governor was to deliver a speech Friday at the Advancing Enterprise Conference, an event running alongside the G7 meeting and set to be attended by chief executives and chairmen from leading British companies, including the supermarket group Tesco and HSBC bank.

The G7 meeting was meanwhile likely to feature discussions on oil prices.

At its last meeting in Washington in September, finance ministers from the world's richest nations expressed concern over skyhigh oil prices and warned that fuel costs could derail global economic growth.