Monti arrives for G8

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti arrives at a Washington DC airport Friday (May 18) for a G8 summit at Camp David this weekend.

The G8 summit comes amid growing fears that Greece might crash out of the single currency euro zone and financial markets have turned fearful about the prospects of a full-blown crisis in Europe.

Obama and other U.S. officials have urged European leaders repeatedly to do more to stimulate growth in the region, fearing contagion from the euro crisis could hurt the U.S. economy and threaten Obama's chances of re-election on November 6.

No economic policy outcomes are expected from the closed-door talks at Camp David, a rustic presidential escape about two hours from Washington that Obama has visited far less frequently than his predecessor George W. Bush.

The White House moved the summit to the Maryland retreat from Chicago in part to give the meeting a more informal flavour, as well as to escape the possibility of protests when Russian President Vladimir Putin was slated to attend.

His prime minister, Dmitri Medvedev, will be there instead along with G8 first-timers Francois Hollande, Mario Monti of Italy and Yoshihiko Noda of Japan, as well as Britain's David Cameron and Canada's Stephen Harper, plus German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Obama. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy are also set to attend.

The White House said each leader would get their own cabin, albeit of different sizes. It will be the largest international summit ever held at Camp David, which was built in the 1930s and is best known as the site of past Middle East peace talks.