Tutu urges G8 leaders to go even further on debt relief

ARCHBISHOP Desmond Tutu yesterday called on leaders of the world's eight richest nations to show the world cares about Africa, as Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Moscow for the start of a week-long diplomatic marathon where he hopes to set the scene for the upcoming G8 summit.

Archbishop Tutu welcomed the debt cancellation deal brokered by Chancellor Gordon Brown, but the South African churchman called on G8 leaders to go further when they gather in Scotland next month.

Archbishop Tutu called the London debt deal "a splendid start". Speaking on BBC News 24 yesterday, he said: "Those leaders are not going to pretend that the world doesn't care. I am very much encouraged by what has happened yesterday with the G8 finance ministers.

"I hope that the heads of these different countries will be sensitive and say we are on the same side, we want to eradicate poverty, we want to ensure that trade conditions are equitable and we want to increase aid."

Yesterday, U2 lead singer Bono called for a mass movement to Edinburgh to force world leaders to meet commitments made to wipe out the debt of the poorest nations on the planet. The U2 frontman, who has campaigned for debt relief for the last seven years, said on Ireland's RTE radio that the agreement by the world's most powerful countries was a great moment.

"Politicians love to sign cheques but they hate cashing them, and there will be a lot of rhetoric around this G8," Bono said. "We have to turn up en masse at this [Gleneagles] golf course [because] if we don't, the debt piece that happened, that will stay, but all the other pieces which are as important or more important, they will fudge."

Chancellor Brown announced the deal which will eventually assist 38 countries as leaders prepared for the G8 full summit at Gleneagles in Scotland next month. Annual repayments of $1-2 billion from up to 38 countries, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, will be wiped out under the agreement struck by G8 finance ministers who met in London.

The G8 deal means $1.5 billion will be offered in debt relief per year to the initial 18 eligible nations, but Make Poverty History campaigners claim they need $10 billion a year.

Campaigners said they also hope to secure an annual commitment of $50 billion in aid from donor countries and a rapid move towards the target of offering 0.7 per cent of national income in aid.

The Prime Minister's mission takes him to Moscow, Berlin, Paris and Luxembourg. He will meet Russian president Vladimir Putin for a "Gleneagles Declaration" on climate change which he hopes will succeed the Kyoto protocol and win the backing of the United States.

He will quiz the Russian premier - who signed the Kyoto protocol - over whether he would be willing to sign a new agreement for after Kyoto expires in 2012.

Mr Blair's official spokesman said: "This is first and foremost a pre-G8 visit. What we are doing is going around the members of the G8 preparing the agenda for the G8 in Gleneagles - and that is on Africa and climate change."

British officials have been increasingly optimistic about a "Gleneagles Declaration" where America's spending on new energy technology is acknowledged and taken in lieu of reducing carbon emissions.

Mr Blair is increasingly confident of an agreement that could include India and China, who are both coming to the G8 summit but not party to the Kyoto protocol.

Yesterday, despite his victory in securing an agreement with the finance ministers of the seven richest nations for debt relief, Mr Brown cautioned this was simply a prelude to the Gleneagles summit next month.

"This is not a time for timidity but a time for boldness and not a time for settling for second best but for aiming high," he said. "This sets the stage for the Gleneagles summit where I know it is the intention of world leaders to form a new and better relationship, a new deal between the rich and poor of the world."

However, the deal falls short of the Blair-established Africa Commission's findings that $25 billion a year is needed for the continent.

Bob Geldof stressed that much more had to be done. He said: "We must be clear that this is the beginning, and the end will not be achieved until we have the complete package demanded by the Commission for Africa of debt cancellation, doubling of aid, and trade justice. This must be achieved in the next four weeks by the G8 summit in Gleneagles."

How much more progress can be made is uncertain with the Americans continuing to oppose the Chancellor's International Finance Facility, which would allow countries to borrow against future aid.

BENEFICIARIES

EIGHTEEN countries, including Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana and Mali, will benefit immediately from the pact to scrap 100 per cent of the 22 billion they owe to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the African Development Bank.

A further nine countries owing 6.6 billion are expected to complete the programme's targets for good governance within 12 to 18 months and would then qualify for debt relief.

The G8 countries also agreed to meet any shortfall that the IMF could not cover