FRANCE: Leaders of the richest nations faced calls yesterday to spend more on aid to developing countries or risk missing agreed goals to fight poverty.
UN Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan pressed the summit of Group of Eight countries for faster debt relief and greater progress on dismantling trade barriers, to meet an ambitious plan to cut poverty world leaders agreed to in 2000.
"Formidable challenges lie ahead if we are to even come close to meeting the goals," Mr Annan told G8 leaders meeting in the French spa town of Evian.
Host President Jacques Chirac has made aid a priority at the talks and invited developing country leaders to yesterday's opening session. G8 leaders were having a working dinner with African leaders on the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) yesterday evening.
Mr Chirac is pushing for more progress on NEPAD, an African- inspired plan aimed at hauling the continent out of poverty. He has already unveiled proposals for a moratorium on farm export subsidies and suggested studying how to shield African farmers from fluctuating commodity prices.
"The glass isn't even half full. But something is changing in relations between Africa and the rest of the world," France's senior aide on African development affairs, Mr Michel Camdessus, said ahead of the dinner.
Mr Chirac, at a news conference, praised President Bush for getting the US Congress to pass a $15 billion (€12.8 billion) spending increase to combat AIDS in the developing world.
"Bush took a decision in this area that I would not hesitate to call historic," Mr Chirac said.
He said France would triple its AIDS spending to €150 million, and European Union officials said the 15 member nations are expected to commit about €1 billion in new funds at a summit in Greece later this month.
But humanitarian group Oxfam said virtually nothing had been achieved in a year since leaders of the richest states pledged to fight African poverty.
"The US and the UK found $70 billion to fight the war in Iraq. They can't find $25 billion to halve poverty in Africa and put every child in school," said Oxfam's Mr Phil Twyford.
The proportion of people living in extreme poverty has increased in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, central and eastern Europe and former Soviet states, Mr Annan said, adding that only East Asia and the Pacific were on track to meet their goals of easing the burden on the poor.
The UN Secretary General wants an 80 per cent increase in aid to $100 billion a year, up from $57 billion last year, in order to meet the Millennium Development Goals agreed by 147 world leaders in 2000.
Brazil's President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva challenged the G8 to create a fund to fight global hunger.
He said money could come from a tax on the international arms trade or reinvesting a percentage of developing countries' debt payments.
Britain is still seeking support for its plan to double poor country aid through an international finance facility.
Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair had already raised the issue at a summit lunch and won support from Mr Chirac, Mexico's President Vicente Fox and Indian Prime Minister Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, Mr Blair's spokesman said.
Mr Gordon Brown, Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, failed last month to win full Group of Seven backing for the plan, under which rich countries would borrow money in the world financial markets against long-term commitments for aid, and so doubling assistance to the poorest countries by 2015.
Mr Annan also pressed for progress on dismantling trade barriers, which make it hard for developing countries' farmers to compete in world trade, and for better access to drugs to fights AIDS and other diseases in poor countries.