PM defends G8 agreement

Saturday, 9 July 2005 12:00 AM

Tony Blair has rejected criticisms that the $50 billion (£30 billion) aid package agreed by the G8 leaders falls short of the help needed to tackle African poverty.

In response to scepticism about the deal expressed by aid agencies, the prime minister insisted that the leaders of the world's richest countries had made "very substantial progress" in helping developing countries, following the talks at the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland.

Stressing that the agreement would "lift the shadow of terrorism" following bomb attacks in London on Thursday, Mr Blair said: "We do not, simply by this communique, make poverty history.

"But we do show it can be done and we do signify the political will to do it."

In an interview recorded for Today on Friday night, the British premier also defended progress on climate change and insisted the US now accepted global warming as a problem.

"The ambition I had for this summit in respect of climate change was limited. But in my view it offers a better way forward," Mr Blair said.

"It is to get people to accept there is a problem...agree we had to act urgently and most important of all to agree a process of dialogue that would involve not just America but also China and India and the emerging economies."

The prime minister said the summit had achieved "a pathway to consensus", but environmentalists expressed disappointment in the failure of G8 leaders to agree on a strategy to tackle global warming.

Although environmentalists and aid agencies have been critical about the outcome of the summit, Live 8 organiser Bob Geldof described the summit as a "qualified triumph."

U2 singer and fellow anti-poverty campaigner, Bono also praised the prime minister and chancellor Gordon Brown for their role in securing an agreement on African aid and debt relief.

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