BRITAIN: The Make Poverty History group last night accused British chancellor Gordon Brown of hyping the debt deal offered by rich countries to Africa ahead of the G8 summit.
In a letter to Mr Brown, the chairman of Make Poverty History, Richard Bennett, expressed "dismay and serious concern" at the way Britain was presenting proposals for debt cancellation.
"What is being discussed is emphatically not 100 per cent debt cancellation for the world's poorest countries, but [ British] government spokespeople continue to state or imply that it is."
The British treasury rejected the accusation that Mr Brown had over-spun the debt relief agreement, but the letter was made public at a time when members of the Make Poverty History coalition were expressing strong misgivings.
The "sherpas", the officials of each country who negotiate the detail ahead of the summit, held talks at Gleneagles, Scotland, yesterday and a further full session is scheduled for today.
The sherpas achieved progress at the weekend on climate change by securing concessions from the US agreeing to a programme of action to curb warming. But they are still negotiating the details of doubling aid to Africa by 2010.
The officials are concerned that when the final communique is published on Friday, it risks being met with cynicism because at least two of the countries, Italy and Germany, have only given promises, not firm commitments.
Pressure from other G8 members is being put on Italy and Germany to remove their caveats. "It would be the worst thing for Africa to make these commitments and not deliver," a G8 official said.
Action Aid said that, despite the "furious spin by the British government", there is still a long way to go if Gleneagles is to be declared a success.
Steve Tibbett, the charity's head of policy and campaigns, said: "It is shocking that the government is using millions of poor people to score a PR coup. Look behind the rhetoric and the reality falls far short. We are still nowhere near a deal that will effectively tackle global poverty. So far the UK government is largely serving up spin and hype."
A meeting of finance ministers from the G7 countries - the G8 excluding Russia - agreed last month to write off the debts of up to 28 states, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa, to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the African Development Bank. - (Guardian service)