The Chancellor, Gordon Brown, is to expand on his plans to tackle Third World debt in a speech to church leaders.

Gordon Brown: "I want every one of the 41 poorest countries confronting their debt by the millennium"

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Hume and voluntary organisations are joining the Chancellor and the International Development Secretary, Clare Short, to examine ways of resolving the debt problems of the poorest countries.

Mr Brown announced a five-point plan in Mauritius in September aimed at making "firm decisions on the amounts and terms of debt relief for at least three-quarters of [debtor] countries" by 2000.

Gordon Brown: wants a millennium fund for gift aid

Speaking on BBC Radio ahead of today's conference in London to discuss the "Mauritius Mandate," he said Britons may get tax relief to encourage them to give.

This would create a "millennium fund for gift aid to help education and anti-poverty programmes" in the developing world, he said.

Mr Brown said a fund would help more than 150 million primary school age children have never received any formal education.

On debt relief, the Chancellor said Britain would "take unilateral action to urge others to follow."

At the Commonwealth Finance Ministers meeting in September, Mr Brown said lower income Commonwealth nations would see their UK debts written off.

The other key commitment in the "Mauritius Mandate" is to help Uganda reduce its debt to the African Development Bank.

The Government would now particularly like to help Mozambique, Mr Brown said.

Jubilee 2000, an umbrella group for 73 organisations interested in international debt relief, said the first thing it wanted from the conference was for the Chancellor to specify exactly which countries he proposed to help.

"We're pleased to see him talking in terms of unilateral action," a spokesman said. "But we need to see more evidence of that."

Mr Brown also announced on Wednesday that the President of the Board of Trade, Margaret Beckett, is to give £100m in export credits for investment in the poorest countries.

More than 150m children get no basic education

In Mauritius, the Chancellor said Britain would continue to finance technical assistance through its aid programme.

British Aid Statistics, published by the department last week, show overseas aid fell again in the past year.

Total expenditure in 1996-97 was £2151m compared to £2288m the previous year, a 9% drop in real terms.

Long-term development cash shrank from £2013m to £1911m in the same period.

A Treasury spokesman said Mr Brown hoped his meeting with church leaders and voluntary organisations would raise the profile of third-world debt and focus the British strategy to combat it.

The conference comes a day after Christian Aid was forced to withdraw an advert seeking to promote the issue from television slots because it was deemed too political.
 

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