Leaders of the world's richest nations look set to hold crisis talks in the aftermath of last week's attacks.
The Italian Prime Minister, Mr Silvio Berlusconi, in London to meet his British counterpart, Mr Tony Blair, said President Bush had accepted an offer to hold a meeting of the G8 to discuss the implications of the attack on the World Trade Centre.
"Some G8 leaders asked me if Bush thought it would be good to hold a G8 meeting. I have spoken to Bush. He said it would happen," Mr Berlusconi said.
Italy is the current holder of the rotating G8 presidency.
Mr Berlusconi, while expressing Italy's "total agreement" with the US on the need for united action against terrorism, urged caution on possible military reprisals.
"We are friends of the US and we too have been directly hit since many Italians were victims of the terrorist attack. However, none of us knows what will be the result of the on-going investigations. There already have been many innocent victims so there shouldn't be other innocent victims."
Mr Berlusconi said the fight against international terrorism would take "a long time" since the phenomenon was rooted in many different countries. He also suggested it was premature to speculate on what military contribution Italy might make to any action against terrorists.
Mr Berlusconi's remarks came the day after his Defence Minister, Mr Antonio Martino, had caused consternation when appearing to suggest that Italian troops would not be involved in any military intervention.
Mr Martino later qualified his remarks by saying Italy would provide whatever troops and logistical support might be requested by the US or the UN. On Sunday, the Italian President, Mr Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, appeared to endorse some form of military action when comparing the threat posed by fundamentalist terrorism to that of Nazi-Fascism in 1943.
Mr Ciampi said: "On that occasion, we didn't give up, we resisted and in the end, paying a heavy price, we laid down solid foundations, at least in Europe, for a lasting peace."
The Italian President did, however, warn against Western democracies becoming isolated arguing they must learn to "take on board the problems of the less fortunate countries of the world".