The poorest people on earth stole the show from leaders of the world's richest nations at the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Cologne on Saturday when tens of thousands of demonstrators formed a human chain around the city centre to call for Third World debt to be written off.
Bono and Bob Geldof were among those who led the protest, which ended with the handing over of a petition signed by an estimated 17 million people - including almost 800,000 in Ireland - to the German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder.
The G8 leaders agreed to wipe out $71 billion owed by the poorest countries but protesters argue that more needs to be done to enable developing countries to fund adequate health and education systems and to build up basic economic structures.
"We're not whingeing because it's a good start, what the G8 are proposing. But it's not what we wanted," Bono said.
Mr Schroder acknowledged yesterday that the proposals did not go far enough and he insisted that debt relief was not only in the interest of poor countries but of developed nations too.
"This is money we lost long ago. It is only if they are helped that these countries can return to the world market and trade with us," he said.
Russia can look forward to seeing some of its massive foreign debt burden rescheduled once it implements a plan for economic reform agreed with the International Monetary Fund. Moscow wants its western creditors to write off $100 billion in debt incurred before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, 40 per cent of which is owed to Germany.
Mr Schroder promised to look sympathetically at Russia's demands but he ruled out a complete write-off of the debt at the German taxpayers' expense.
"The other nations take this more lightly, not because they have different principles but because they have hardly any debts there," he said.
The G8 leaders were upbeat about world economic developments during the past year, praising "policy steps and important policy actions leading to stronger performance in some emerging markets." But they acknowledged that high unemployment remained a problem in many countries and called for more flexibility in labour, capital and product markets and the introduction of tax policies to encourage employment.
In a declaration called the "Cologne Charter", the leaders pledged to make education and training a priority, identifying education and lifelong learning as the passport to mobility in the future.
"As we move into the next century, access to knowledge will be one of the most significant determinants of income and the quality of life. Globalisation means that developed and developing countries alike stand to gain from higher standards of skills and knowledge across the world," the charter declares.
The financial crises in Asia, Russia and Latin America during the past two years highlighted weaknesses in the international financial system which often encouraged instability. Although the G8 leaders stopped short of banning such speculative mechanisms as hedge funds, they expressed their determination to bring financial institutions under greater control.
"It is not acceptable that private institutions make short-term investments in these countries and then, when the going gets rough, they disappear to leave our taxpayers to pick up the bill," Mr Schroder said.
British and American officials complained that Germany "bounced" the other G8 leaders into launching an international investigation into the safety of genetically modified foods. They were especially annoyed that the question of food safety appeared in the final communique under the heading of "Global Threats", alongside such problems as AIDS, malaria, civil war and the millennium bug.
