Blair says African debt relief plan making progress

British Prime Minster Tony Blair said today his plan to ease African debt was making good progress among G8 leaders.

He also said a newly announced US famine relief plan would be only a small part of the effort to boost African development.

“We are a significant way toward a deal,” he said in reference to African debt relief ahead of the summit of the G8 group of wealthy nations in Gleneagles, Scotland, next month.

“There are still issues we need to resolve, but I am increasingly hopeful we will get a good deal on that,” he said.

Briefing journalists at the British embassy in Washington, Blair said a $674m (€549.5m) White House plan for famine relief in Ethiopia and Eritrea, being formally announced later today, was only a small step toward a $25bn (€20.4bn) increase in African aid he hopes to secure at the summit.

“It is important we deal with the situation in Ethiopia and Eritrea, but obviously, there’s a lot more that needs to be dealt with... the (Bush) administration itself has made clear that this is not the only commitment,” he said.

Blair is making fighting African poverty and global warming the centrepieces of Britain’s G-8 chairmanship this year. He hopes to secure deals in both areas at the summit and is meeting Bush as part of a blitz of travel to lobby G-8 leaders.

Blair and Bush may have had trouble finding common ground on climate change. Blair says it is one of the most pressing issues, while Bush rejects scientists’ view that man-made pollutants are causing temperatures to increase.

“The important thing is that we do deal with it, that we recognise that there is a need for clear and immediate action to tackle the problem,” Blair said.

“We need to be thinking about how we move beyond the present situation where there is huge emissions of greenhouse gases,” he said.