Give Africa a future, Blair urges G8

The British Prime Minister says decline in aid to poorer nations should be reversed

The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, is urging fellow leaders of the world's leading industrial nations to tackle Africa's debt burden.

In an interview with the Guardian newspaper Mr Blair, who will chair the G8 summit in Birmingham on Friday, called on the world's richest nations to "give Africa a future".

He urged the G8 to back measures to help the poorest countries invest in services to help their people rather than merely meeting interest payments on their crippling debts.

The G8 must not be simply a "talking shop", he said, but must set set out clear directions on debt relief, international finance, cross-border crime, the environment and the millennium computer bug.

Calls for action on Third World debt

In an eve-of-summit letter to Mr Blair, the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, also highlighted the Third World debt burden.

Tony Blair says G8 must be more than just a talking shop

He urged the G8 to improve and speed up the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative. The aim of this is to reduce the debt burden on developing nations to sustainable levels and encourage sound economic policies.

The Secretary-General also called for measures to tackle money laundering and to protect countries from the effects of volatile capital movements in the wake of the Asian financial crisis.

He also urged the G8 to reverse the sharp decline in official development aid to poorer nations.

On Thursday, a report by the British MPs on the Commons International Development Committee also urged the G8 to look at ways of tackling Third World debt.

The report cited United Nations estimates that 21 million children's lives could be saved by the year 2,000 in Africa alone if the continent was relieved of its annual debt repayments.

The Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes urged the G8 to draw up a plan to write off the debt of "the poorest billion of the world".

Considering a response to India

The G8 summit will also consider how to respond to India's series of nuclear weapons tests this week which prompted worldwide condemnation.

Robin Cook: seeking a consensus

But while the US and Japan have imposed sanctions on India and want the rest of the world to follow suit, other G8 members such as Russia and France oppose such measures.

The British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook has said it is his country's job to "find the point of maximum unity" among member states.

Measures would have to be taken to show India the strength of international feeling, he said.

The summit hopes to provide an "informal atmosphere" for the heads of government discussions.

Much of the business expected to be raised by leaders - the crisis in Kosovo, the Middle East peace process, trade, energy, the environment and the future of world financial institutions - has already been dealt with by foreign and finance ministers who met in London last week.