Blair faces criticism from aid agencies

Prime Minister Tony Blair has faced criticism from aid agencies, who say that the pledging of $674 million for famine relief in Africa by the US is not enough.

Mr Blair met with US President George Bush yesterday to discuss the Africa and climate change – the two issues at the forefront of the government’s agenda, as Britain takes over the presidency of G8.

However, the money pledged by the US President, which will provide famine relief in Ethiopia and Eritrea, is much less than Mr Blair had hoped to secure.

Chancellor Gordon Brown unveiled proposals to encourage the world’s richest countries to double foreign aid to Africa and cancel the debt of developing countries. However, Mr Bush had objected to the plans, saying that they did not fit with the US’ “budgetary process”. However, he did pledge additional funding towards cancelling debt.

Aid agencies warned that the American president’s offer did not go far enough. Jonathan Glennie, a senior policy analyst from Christian Aid, told ‘The Times’ that the money pledged by President Bush was “a drop in the ocean”, while Romilly Greenhill from ActionAid told the newspaper that “Africa deserves more than crumbs from the richest country’s table.”

However, Bob Geldof, who is staging the Live 8 concerts next month to highlight world poverty, told the BBC that he was encouraged by the result of Mr Blair and Mr Bush’s meeting. He said: “I think that the US and UK have got an agreement on debt relief.”

One area where Mr Blair and Mr Bush did not reach an agreement was climate change.

The US President had been strongly opposed to the Kyoto Protocol, which restricts greenhouse gas emissions to help limit global warming. Though following the meeting, Mr Blair was reported to have said that he was still hopeful that a plan on climate change could be put together at the G8 summit, which takes place in Gleneagles, Scotland between July 6 – 8.

(KMcA/SP)