LEADERS of the world's biggest economies today renewed its commitment to aiding areas of the world in need of assistance.
Concluding the G8 summit in Scotland, host Tony Blair announced a $50 billion (£28.73 billion) aid deal for Africa as
part of a broader package to address the continent's many concerns. The package includes the cancellation of debt to the poorest nations and the "signal" for a new deal on trade. It also involved universal access to AIDS treatment, a commitment to a new peacekeeping force for Africa and a commitment by African leaders to democracy and good governance.
Surrounded by fellow world leaders, the Prime Minister said an additional $3 billion will be rewarded to the Palestinian Authority. He also announced measures to open new dialogue with emerging nations on tackling climate change.
Mr Blair acknowledged that the deal on Africa was not all that campaigners had been hoping for but insisted that it represented real progress. He said the deal was "not the end of poverty in Africa but it is hope that it can be ended".
"It is the definitive expression of our collective will to act in the face of death and disease and conflict that is preventable," he added.
The target of an annual extra $50 billion in aid by 2015, set by the African Commission, has been described as a minimum by many experts. Sceptical aid agencies will pore over the details when they come to see how much of the money has been previously announced.
The Prime Minister also said: "The G8 agreed a substantial package of help for the Palestinian Authority, amounting to up to $3 billion for the years to come so that two states, Israel and Palestine, two peoples and two religions can live side by side in peace."
The Prime Minister addressed reporters at Gleneagles, Perthshire, a day after London became the target of the worst peacetime attack on British soil. Mr Blair said the G8 leaders had refused to be deflected by the bombings and their agreements offered hope in the face of the terrorist outrages.
"All of this (assistance) does not change the world tomorrow. It is a beginning, not an end. And none of it today will match the same ghastly impact of terror," he said. "But it has a pride and a hope and humanity at its heart that can lift the shadow of terrorism and light the way to a better future."
On climate change, Mr Blair said that a process had been agreed with a plan of action to open a dialogue with the emerging economies to "slow down and then in time reverse" the rise in greenhouse gas emissions. He said this would begin with an international meeting in Britain on 1 November.
