France backs Brown's aid project

Mr Brown wants to allow countries to borrow against future aid

France is backing UK Chancellor Gordon Brown's call for global aid to be doubled to $100bn (£54bn) a year.

"What will weigh more on... our economies?" said French Finance Minister Nicholas Sarkozy.

"Terrorism, poverty, despair - or a possible tax that pushes back poverty, despair and hence terrorism?"

Mr Brown secured the backing of Mr Sarkozy - but not yet that of Germany or the US - at a summit in Paris attended by ministers from 56 nations.

The chancellor called for world leaders to "accept the challenge for our time and for our generation" and said they should have "the strength together to fight poverty, remove destitution, end illiteracy, and cure disease in the developing world".

It is a political imperative to tackle the poverty that leads to civil wars, failed states and safe havens for terrorists Gordon Brown

He added: "I propose we all commit ourselves, as partners together, to work to make the radical changes required."

The summit is taking place in Paris on the 100th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale and reflects sensitivity in the French capital to criticism that the 1904 treaty allowed the superpowers of the world to build empires in what is now the Third World.

Mr Brown believes the backing he has received from France and others at the Ministerial Forum on Financing for Development event will put pressure on the seemingly undecided Americans and Germans to support the scheme at key meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank later this month.

Warning on mortality goal

Thursday's forum will focus on the internationally-agreed Millennium Development Goals of halving poverty, cutting infant mortality by two thirds and ensuring universal primary schooling by 2015.

In his "call to action" speech, Mr Brown will warn that, at present rates, the Millennium Goal on cutting infant mortality would not be met in sub-Saharan Africa until 2165.

He will tell the summit: "I believe that the scale of the challenge is such that we cannot leave it to some other time and some other people but must act now, working together.

"We understand that it is not just morally and ethically right that developing countries move from poverty to prosperity but that it is a political imperative - central to our long-term national security and peace - to tackle the poverty that leads to civil wars, failed states and safe havens for terrorists."

Borrowing against future aid

Mr Brown's plan would see a further $50bn in aid each year to 2015 by allowing recipient countries to borrow on the international markets against pledges of future donations.

"Take the Millennium Goal of reducing maternal mortality by three-quarters by 2015," Mr Brown will say.

"To reach this target would need investment of just two or three dollars for each mother at risk - $4bn more each year in total."