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British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown said on Saturday finance chiefs from Group of Seven countries have offered up to 100 percent debt relief for the world's poorest countries in an effort to boost their development.
At the end of the G7 finance ministers meeting in London, Brown said that the G7 club -- the UK, US, France, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada -- agreed to offer, on a case by case basis, up to 100% relief on the debts owed by the poorest countries to multinational institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and African Development Bank.
Brown, who chaired the meeting, told a press conference after the meeting that discussions would continue on what financing mechanisms should be used to increase development assistance and the IMF would work on proposals to help the debt relief effort.
Britain has made tackling poverty in Africa and the developing world a priority for its presidency of the G8 -- the Group of Seven plus Russia, which it said is crucial to meet the goals set by the United Nation's 2000 Millennium Summit to tackle by 2015 the poverty, hunger and disease affecting billions of people.
Describing the G7 meeting as "successful", Brown said the participants have also agreed plans for countries hit hard by the December 26, 2004 killer tsunami and for the third world debt relief.
"London 2005 will in my view be seen as the 100% debt relief summit. It is the richest countries hearing the voices of the poor. It is the first time that as much as 100% debt relief has ever been detailed in a G7 communiqué," he said.
During the meeting, Brown said, finance ministers and central bankers from G7 countries also called for more balanced global growth in which, he said, each continent must play part.
"The United States has committed to fiscal consolidation, Europe and Japan to further structural reform," the G7 said in a statement issued at the end of the two-day meeting.
"We call on international institutions to work with oil producing countries to ensure a climate conducive to investment. We recognized the importance of raising medium-term energy supply, of energy efficiency, and of technology and innovation in ensuring energy security," the statement added.
(Xinhua News Agency February 6, 2005)
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