Last-minute discussions were continuing last night among officials from the G8 countries to reach agreement on trade, HIV spending and aid for their summit which opens here today, writes Deaglán De Bréadún in Gleneagles
As the leaders of the world's eight richest nations made their way to Gleneagles in Scotland, police outside the venue set up barricades as activists prepared to protest outside the security barrier protecting the hotel.
Last-minute wrangling continued over funding of HIV/Aids treatment after an initial commitment by finance ministers to have universal Aids treatment by 2010. There were signs last night, however, that the United States may agree to include the pledge in the final communique of the summit.
There was reported to be no consensus on eliminating trade subsidies, with the United Kingdom failing to get agreement from the French and US on even a timetable for the phasing out of export subsidies for farm produce.
Negotiations today may also centre on funding to develop a vaccine for HIV/Aids, a global aviation tax for development purposes which would be adopted on a voluntary basis by different countries, a US "famine plan" for Africa, free access to G8 markets for states with Least Developed Country status and training in peacekeeping duties for 75,000 soldiers from African countries.
Commitments to deal with greenhouse gas emissions by developing new technology are also expected.
France and Britain are likely to use unpublished figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to put pressure on the US, Canada and Japan to be more generous. Projections show that of the $46 billion (€39 billion) aid increase between 2004 and 2010, the EU has pledged $38 billion (€32 billion).
British chancellor of the exchequer Gordon Brown warned that the G8 was unlikely to fulfil all the hopes held out for it due to lack of consensus. "I know that what you will say is that what we can achieve is perhaps not good enough," he said. "But we have got to bring the whole of the world together. What Britain says is one thing; what we can persuade the rest of the world to do together is what we will get as the outcome of Gleneagles."
Bob Geldof, who organised the Live8 concerts to put pressure on G8 leaders to deliver over the next three days, criticised Mr Brown for lowering the bar on aid. "It is unacceptable for politicians to say 'prepare to be disappointed'. "
A spokeswoman for the aid agency, Trócaire, Dr Lorna Gold, said in Edinburgh: "We hope that the demonstrations of public opinion we have witnessed over the past week will be turned into concrete action - $50 billion of additional aid which starts next year, 100 per cent debt cancellation for the 60 countries that need it and further progress on fair trade."
Labour Party foreign affairs spokesman Michael D Higgins called for a "sustained moral commitment" to remedying global poverty to emerge from the summit.