MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brown: G8 cannot mend Africa alone

British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown yesterday played down the ability of the Group of Eight nations to provide quick solutions for African poverty, saying that solving the continent's problems will take a lifetime of empowering local communities

??It is not a week's work at the G-8 that is going to determine the long-term future of Africa or the developing countries,'' Brown told the BBC. ??It is a lifetime's work where we empower the people of Africa and the developing countries to make decisions for themselves,'' he added.

However, Brown rejected suggestions that Saturday's series of Live 8 concerts around the world had overblown expectations of agreement among world leaders on poverty alleviation at next week's summit.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has described the poverty in Africa as a ??scar on the conscience on the world'' and is pushing for concerted international action when leaders from the United States, Russia, France, Germany, Canada, Italy and Japan join him for a three-day summit starting on Wednesday in Gleneagles, Scotland.

Brown noted yesterday that agreement in two key areas ? 100 percent debt relief and a doubling of aid for the poorest countries ? had already been reached, and credited public opinion for some of the progress.

??On two of the major issues there has indeed been a great deal of progress and it does I think prove that people, not just in Britain but across the world, are not powerless but people can have power if they make their views felt,'' he said.

??We should be not only congratulatory at people who came out yesterday ? it was Britain at its best and I think it was Britain as a beacon to the world,'' he added. Brown said that leaders were focused on delivering a strategy that would alleviate poverty while stressing transparency from African governments to ensure corruption is tackled.

??For about 30 years, the strategy of the richest countries, that is us, was that if we had strong, sometimes autocratic, leaders in Africa then that might be the best way of getting the modernization necessary,'' he said. ??That has led to Zimbabwe and (its President Robert) Mugabe and all the problems we have got with people who ignore the wishes of their people.