MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

France insists with air ticket tax to fight poverty

France is planning to launch a tax on airline tickets next year to help finance the global fight against poverty, President Jacques Chirac said on Monday.

While the idea is still being discussed at the international level, Chirac said France hoped to put it in place as soon as possible. The tax will go first toward fighting Aids, tuberculosis and malaria.

"Without waiting, I asked the government to start the procedures necessary to put such a tax in place next year", indicated president Chirac.

Five other countries have also anticipated they will push for an international tax on airline ticket at the United Nations summit in New York in mid September.

Countries involved are Germany, Algeria, Brazil, Chile and Spain.

The idea for the "solidarity levy" was presented by French Finance Minister Thierry Breton at a two-day UN ministerial meeting in June.

In the search for new ways of funding the UN goal of halving extreme poverty by 2015, Breton said an airline tax was "one of the most promising solutions for the developing countries and for the international aid architecture."

He said airline tickets were chosen because airlines benefit from globalization and pay low tax rates, because airline passengers "are rarely among the poorest citizens," and because the practical and legal feasibility of similar plans has been proven in the UK and elsewhere.