L'Aquila  - The world's eight richest powers should give a "very clear" condemnation of North Korea's testing of nuclear bombs and missiles, European Union officials said as the annual G8 summit opened in the Italian town of L'Aquila.

"We've seen this kind of provocation from North Korea, we've seen it before, I think that we will be very clear on not accepting that and speaking very clearly against these kind of measures," Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said as he arrived at the summit.

Sweden currently holds the EU's rotating presidency.

North Korea outraged world opinion by testing a nuclear bomb on May 25, and by test-firing a series of missiles in the months that followed, the latest cluster coming on July
4.

The UN Security Council responded by toughening its sanctions on the Stalinist state, allowing UN members to stop and search vessels suspected of carrying banned goods to North Korea on the high seas.

On June 26, G8 foreign ministers called on one another to implement the UN sanctions quickly.(dpa)