(Adds details, background)
By Steve Holland
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE, May 30 (Reuters) - U.S. President
Donald Trump said on Saturday he would postpone the Group of
Seven summit that he wanted to hold in late June and expand the
list of countries invited to include Australia, Russia, South
Korea and India.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One during his return to
Washington from Cape Canaveral in Florida, Trump said the G7 in
its current format is a "very outdated group of countries."
"I'm postponing it because I don't feel that as a G7 it
properly represents what's going on in the world," Trump said.
The decision is a dramatic pivot for Trump, who had sought
to host the group of major industrialized countries in
Washington as a demonstration that the United States was
returning to normal after the coronavirus epidemic, which has
killed more than 103,000 Americans to date.
The G7 is made up of the United States, Italy, Japan,
Canada, France, Germany, Britain as well as the European Union.
(Reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Andy Sullivan and Mike
Stone; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Paul Simao)