The Hindu : International : Bush may block plan for Africa

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 31, 2005

International

International

Bush may block plan for Africa

By Heather Stewart

LONDON, JAN. 30. George W Bush will emerge as the major obstacle to Britain's ambitious proposals for a new "Marshall Plan" for Africa this week as the world's Finance Ministers converge on London for the G-7 summit.

With troops mired in Iraq, and Mr. Bush under pressure to reduce his vast budget deficit, Washington is reluctant to commit extra cash to relieve the plight of Africa.

The German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, set the scene for a trans-Atlantic confrontation when he became the latest European leader to throw his weight behind Britain's plans for an International Finance Facility that Gordon Brown hopes will release an extra $50 billions for the world's poorest countries.

France and Italy had already expressed support for a large increase in aid and debt relief, and a British Treasury official said: "We can go into the G-7 this week with Europe presenting a united front. There's a momentum building." However, campaigners are warning that U.S. opposition could prove a major stumbling block.

"We are not expecting a complete agreement along the lines of the U.K. proposals: I think the U.S. is still pretty intransigent," said Romilly Greenhill of the development charity Action Aid.

Doubts over proposals

Japan has also expressed doubts about the proposals, but the British Treasury believes Tokyo would fall into line if the U.S. signed up.

As the first step in Britain's year-long campaign to "make poverty history," Mr. Brown has promised to meet the cost of writing off 10 per cent of the debt of the world's poorest countries to the World Bank, and challenged his fellow G-7 Finance Ministers to follow suit. Canada could agree to do so this week.

But the U.S. is proposing its own, cheaper, scheme in which debt relief would be deducted from existing aid flows. —

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