While the world welcomes a deal of richest countries to cancel billions of dollars of debt owed by the poorest countries, most of them in Africa, rich countries have been urged to do more to get the poor African countries to really benefit from the help. DEBT RELIEF POSITIVE, BUT NOT ENOUGH

The Group of Eight (G8) -- Britain, Japan, Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Germany and Russia -- announced a deal Saturday to write off all the multilateral debts amounting to 40 billion dollars owed by 18 world's poorest countries, most of them in Africa.

African countries and the international community have hailed the historical deal but said the debt relief is not enough and more could be done.

Nigeria's president Olusegun Obasanjo welcomed the promise by wealthy nations but warned that debt relief would not be enough.

"Even though debt relief would have the effect of freeing up much-needed resources for development, it will still not provide the minimum financial outlay required to speed up progress towards the realization of the (United Nations' poverty-cutting) Millennium Development Goals," Obasanjo said.

The total debt owed by African countries amounted to 350 billion dollars, while the current cancellation was worth only 2.0 billion dollars a year at most for poor countries. According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, in order to help Africa get rid of poverty, an additional aid of 25 billion US dollars is needed annually.

While hailing the G8 debt relief deal, the Group of 77 developing nations and China at a summit Wednesday urged wealthy countries to honor pledges of additional aid to close the gap between rich and poor.

They have approved a draft resolution calling for more debt relief for developing countries, including the cancellation of all government debt owed by least developed countries. MORE DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE NEEDED

The Group of 77 draft declaration also urged rich countries to meet their obligations by raising official development assistance (ODA) to 0.7 percent of Gross National Product. The target was set by the United Nations several years ago but most industrialized countries are still a long way from meeting it.

Algerian presidential envoy Abdelaziz Belkhadem at the meeting called on wealthy nations to reduce the debt burden on poor African nations by transforming part of it into social investments, chiefly in education and health.

According to South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, money spent by rich countries on debt servicing was considerably more than development assistance flowing into African countries.

The minister said in Pretoria that it was time now to ensure that poor countries have sufficient resources to deal with the development issues they face.

There was often a huge gap between pledges made and assistance given, Manuel said, pointing out that while bilateral debt forgiveness and emergency aid had increased, other Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Africa had declined between 1993 and 2003.

Nigeria's President Obasanjo said in a speech to the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Geneva that debt relief needed to be followed through with a durable flow of aid, and he called on rich countries set a clear date for a promised increase in their aid.

"I urge our development partners to establish firm timetables for increasing their official development assistance to the target of 0.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP)," Obasanjo said.

As one part of the millennium goals set by the UN, the target is meant to be completed by 2015. But international officials have repeatedly warned that the pledges made by heads of state in 2000 have fallen well behind schedule.

REMOVAL OF UNFAIR TRADE BARRIERS URGED

Africa has a population of 860 million, accounting for 13.6 percent of the world's population, yet it only accounts two percent of the global trade volume.

For a long time, unfair trade practices, especially in the agricultural sector, have blocked Africa's economic development and made it difficult for African farmers and firms to compete fairly with other nations.

The total debt owed by African countries is the same amount paid by Europe alone as subsidies for its agriculture sector annually. Globalization has produced uneven benefits and the world economy has been characterized by slow and lopsided growth and instability.

African countries have been repeatedly calling for the abolition of First World agricultural subsidies.

"Aid and debt relief are absolutely essential if the world is ever to rid itself of the scourge of poverty, but unless they go hand in hand with fair trade practice, they will never be a lasting solution," said Douglas Gibson, South African leading opposition party's foreign affairs spokesman.

"If African countries could sell their agricultural produce competitively, it is possible that there would be a far smaller need for aid in the first place," he said.

Some British newspapers and debt experts have also said the G8 deal to scrap billions of dollars of debt must be matched by huge increases in aid and an end to European and US agricultural subsidies in order to eradicate poverty.

"While the focus has been so exclusively on debt, the impact of unfair agricultural subsidies has received too little political attention," the British Observer newspaper cautioned.

"The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) does great damage to Africa, locking its farmers out of European markets. Meanwhile, excess European production is sold on world markets, depressing world food prices."

"The United States is no better... Reform the CAP -- and remove US farm subsidies -- and poverty might really become history," the paper said.

Source: Xinhua