Progress on Africa already underway: Brown

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2005

LONDON (AFP) — A "great deal of progress" has already been made on African debt and aid, two of the three key demands made of G8 leaders by campaigners, finance minister Gordon Brown said in the wake of the Live 8 concerts.

Britain will host the three-day annual summit of the Group of Eight industrial powers -- Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States -- at Gleneagles in Brown's native Scotland starting Wednesday.

Campaigners are pressing for G8 leaders to wipe off debt, double aid and overhaul trade rules to help African countries.

Saturday's 10 star-studded Live 8 concerts worldwide highlighted the growing momentum pressuring the G8 to act on the continent's problems.

"On two of the major issues there has indeed...