MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

G8 aid for Africa in terror shadow

Tony Blair on Friday highlighted the commitment of the Group of Eight industrial nations to alleviate poverty in Africa and contrasted it with the “cruelty” of the London bomb attacks.

At the end of a two-day summit that has been overshadowed by the terrorist attacks in London, Mr Blair said G8 agreements to combat poverty in Africa and climate change were a "definitive expression of our collective will to act in the face of death".

Campaigners on both Africa and climate change said they were disappointed with the package on both fronts and Mr Blair acknowledged its limitations. "All of this does not change the world tomorrow," he said, as other G8 leaders gathered behind him. "It is a beginning, not an end."

The G8 agreed to increase aid by $50bn by 2010 from its current level of $79bn, and to double aid to Africa. It also welcomed plans to raise a £3bn package to help build a Palestinian state.

But campaigners who had backed Mr Blair's campaign to increase aid to Africa were disappointed, saying that much of the money was a restatement of existing pledges and that it fell far short of what was needed.

The leaders said the Doha round of trade liberalisation talks should proceed rapidly with a view to clinching a far-reaching deal at the World Trade Organisation ministerial conference in Hong Kong in December. The G8 said agricultural export subsidies had to go a key demand of developing countries but failed to set a date for ending them. In Geneva, it emerged yesterday that the Doha round had suffered a severe setback when agricultural negotiations were stalled by a dispute about how much to cut farm tariffs and allow access to farming markets. "I am afraid we have to face the facts," said Supachai Panitchpakdi, WTO director-general, yesterday. "These negotiations are in trouble."

The agreement on climate change was widely seen as the most significant of the agreements reached by the G8. George W. Bush, US president gave his backing to a statement that the phenomenon "is happening now", that "human activity is contributing to it", and that "urgent action" is needed. Mr Blair said that, while the agreement fell far short of the targets and timetables for the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, it was crucial to keeping the US involved. But Greenpeace said the search for consensus meant the G8 had ended up with "a bland statement".

On oil, the G8 expressed concerns about production bottlenecks. "Significant investments will be needed in the short, medium and long-terms, in exploration, production, and energy infrastructure to meet the needs of a growing global economy," the G8 said.