US rejects Brown's Africa plan

GORDON Brown, the Chancellor, is facing critical opposition from the United States to his plans for tackling poverty in the developing world, it emerged yesterday.

The US Treasury’s under secretary, John Taylor, has briefed journalists that the US opposes Mr Brown’s plans. A key element in Mr Brown’s blueprint is the establishment of an International Finance Facility (IFF) to raise an additional $50 billion a year for development.

But en route to the London conference, Mr Taylor, filling in for the ill Treasury secretary, John Snow, told journalists: "Not only does the IFF not work for the US, we don’t need the IFF."

He also poured cold water on another UK idea: for debt payments owed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to be funded through the more efficient use of IMF gold reserves.

And he reiterated his own preferred option of switching international aid from loans to grants.