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Friday, 21 July, 2000, 05:24 GMT 06:24 UK
Debt shadow over G8 summit
![]() Environmentalists are appealing for an end to logging
The plight of the world's poorest countries will top the agenda in Japan at the annual G8 summit of the world's major industrial nations.
A delegation from the developing nations made an urgent plea before the meeting for the world's wealthiest nations to keep the promises they made at last year's summit to write off $100bn of Third World debt.
The G8 delegates, meeting on the island of Okinawa, will also be tackling issues as diverse as combating Aids and computer crime, thwarting diamond trafficking, the safety of genetically modified foods, and bridging the digital divide. The summit has already attracted controversy, with about 25,000 Japanese protesters forming a human chain around the largest US base in Okinawa to demand the withdrawal of the US military. Asian crisis The seven founding members of the G8 - the US, Japan, Germany, France, the UK, Italy and Canada - will first discuss the progress of international financial reforms put in motion after the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s. They will consider a report from their finance ministers who say that, despite some progress, greater action is needed to prevent a repeat of such crises.
Only after these talks conclude will Russia join the proceedings, in the shape of President Vladimir Putin. Russia has attended these meetings since 1994, but takes part only in the political discussions. Plans to involve Russia in economic and financial talks were postponed in 1998 when the Russian rouble was devalued, plunging the country into economic crisis.
Russia also wants to gain debt forgiveness from Western governments, after reaching agreement to reschedule its private sector debt. Russia's presence at the meeting this year could cause some embarrassment, however, as the seven are also particularly interested in tackling money laundering. A recent report backed by the G7 nations has criticised Moscow for a lack of adequate measures to combat the processing of illegally acquired money. Digital divide Top of the agenda for the summit's Japanese host, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, is bridging the digital divide between rich nations rapidly adopting information technology, and poor countries where even a telephone can be beyond reach. He is planning to announce that Japan will earmark $15bn in aid and loans over the next five years to train IT experts in developing countries.
That issue was on the agenda on Thursday as he and other G8 leaders held an unprecendented summit with representatives of the developing world, including South African President Thabo Mbeki and his Nigerian counterpart, Olusegun Obasanjo . They urged the G8 to implement last year's pact to wipe out $100bn of debt owed by the world's 40 poorest nations if they carried out reforms to improve economic efficiency and alleviate poverty. Mr Obasanjo said the G8 leaders had failed to live up to their promise to do this by the end of 2000. Debt campaigners predict that only $15bn of debt will have been wiped out by the end of the year. Mr Obasanjo said after the meeting: "We have got encouraging words. It is a question of how to translate encouraging words into action."
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