In Italy, La Stampa called on both summiteers and protesters to take stock. The violence "may have stripped naked the weaknesses of the G8 and the anti-globalisation movement", it concluded.

Il Giornale, owned by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, condemned the protesters. It blamed "a generation of genetically-modified young people, who have been misled by what their fathers in centre-left governments wickedly sought to teach them: that Western democracy is... the cause of all the world's suffering".

German newspapers were concerned with the issues raised by the summit. The Frankfurter Rundschau was emphatic in condemning "an anachronistic ritual".

"There is no shortage of things to discuss in these precarious times," it complained, citing the Macedonian conflict and Argentina's economic crisis. But what do the world's rulers offer in their communiques? They pretend the world is still OK behind the barriers of Genoa."

The Sueddeutsche Zeitung detected a "paradox" which made the USA the biggest anti-globaliser of all. As integration increases, so does the need for regulations to govern it, it said.

"[The US] Congress, suspecting that the country is subordinating itself to too many treaties, agreements and institutions, is turning the nation state back into... a protective shell for its retreat from globalisation," it noted.

"But that is hardly what the demonstrators in Genoa really want."