Leaders also discussed immigration, a crucial issue for Meloni who is pushing Europe to help her curb illegal flows from Africa and who has launched a flagship plan to boost development in the continent to tackle the root cause of the departures.

They agreed to launch a coalition to crack down on people smuggling, with greater cooperation on investigations into trafficking networks and confiscation of their assets.

“Illegal migration is now a global emergency,” British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said. “We all agree that it’s for sovereign nations to control their borders and not criminal gangs.”

Sunak said it was the first time a G7 summit had discussed migration, hailing that as a sign of progress.

“Obviously, these things don’t happen overnight,” he said.”(But) the conversation … was very productive, so I’m confident it will make a difference.”

During the first day of their meeting in southern Italy, the G7 nations agreed an outline deal to provide $50 billion of loans for Ukraine backed by interest from frozen Russian assets – hailing the accord as a powerful signal of Western resolve.

In the summit statement, G7 leaders said they wanted to inflict further costs on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, and also promised sanctions against entities that helped Russia circumvent restrictions on its oil trading by transporting it fraudulently.

However, Meloni, who heads a right-wing government, ran into choppy waters over the handling of sensitive social issues in the statement summing up the work of the G7.

G7 leaders made no direct reference to abortion in their final communique, with Italy refusing to bow to French pressure to include the word. The draft also sparked accusations of watering down support for LGBTQ rights compared with the statement issued at the leaders’ previous meeting in Japan.

Italy said it was a diplomatic storm in a teacup and argued that the G7 had not changed its stance on either issue.

Many of the leaders, including Biden, were due to leave Italy late on Friday. On Saturday, there will be room for bilateral meetings for those staying on, ahead of a final news conference from Meloni.