Mandela to push 'Marshall Plan'
2005-01-17 08:17
London - Former president Nelson Mandela has agreed to visit London in February to help jumpstart London's proposal for a "new Marshall Plan" to help ease African nations' chronic poverty, the British media reported on Monday.
Mandela agreed to make the visit during a meeting on Saturday with Britain's finance minister Gordon Brown, reports said.
"Mr Brown announced that Mr Mandela has agreed to visit London in February to urge members of the G7 group of richest nations to do more to help Africa", the BBC said on its internet site. The reports were also carried by the dailies the Times and Independent.
Brown's officials, contacted by AFP, declined to confirm the reports.
The Times and the Independent said that Mandela would travel to London to address a meeting of finance ministers of the world's seven richest countries, grouped in the Group of Seven (G7).
Brown has proposed a plan for Africa modelled on that named after former US secretary of state general George Marshall which restored Europe's economy after World War II, saying rich nations had a duty to address the underlying causes of poverty.
Last October British Prime Minister Tony Blair said that Africa would be one of the main issues addressed in 2005 by the Group of Eight (G8) countries - the G7 and Russia - and the European Union in 2005, when Britain will preside the two organisations.
- AFP