G7 pushes US to support Africa

2005-02-03 18:42

Ben Perry

London - Britain will be seeking approval from the United States for its grand plan to help alleviate poverty in Africa when finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrialised nations convene here on Friday and Saturday.

British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown has pledged to use Britain's presidencies of the G7 and G8, the Group of Seven plus Russia, this year to push for a scheme delivering full debt cancellation, trade benefits and financial assistance for the world's poorest countries, notably in Africa.

But the United States is widely reported to be sceptical of the project, whose main aim seeks to double global aid to the developing world to $100bn per year.

Brown's has dubbed his blueprint, launched in Edinburgh last month, the modern day Marshall Plan after US former secretary of state general George Marshall, who initiated a grand project to restore the European economy from the devastation of World War II.

"We will be trying to persuade America that debt relief and extra finance for development is in its interests not just because it is good economics and social policy but good for its security as well," Brown said in an interview with The Guardian newspaper this week.

"We are winning support. Now is the time to take the next step forward. We are making a major push this weekend. We are demanding action this weekend from the G7," added Brown, who also wants the world's richest countries to cancel the $80bn of debts owed by poor nations to the IMF, the World Bank and African Development Bank.

A Treasury spokesman told AFP that Britain's G7 peers France, Italy and Germany had pledged their support for Brown's Marshall Plan, while discussions were continuing with the group's other members Japan, Canada, and the United States.

US President George W. Bush has meanwhile launched his own development initiative for impoverished nations - the Millennium Challenge Account - which ties foreign aid to good governance, anti-graft measures and transparency.

Professor Tony Barnett, an expert on African development at the London School of Economics, said the difference of opinion between Britain and the United States amounted to "an ongoing low-level conflict".

"The level of American cooperation is not going to be as high as Brown and other European (finance) leaders would wish," he told AFP.

- SAPA