07/06/2005

Bush to offer $674 million for famine relief

US President George Bush is expected to announce $674 million for famine relief when he meets with Prime Minister Tony Blair later today.

President Bush has also announced that $1.4 billion had been given to address emergency needs, which had been requested by the United Nations.

However, the amount falls short of plans by Chancellor Gordon Brown to double foreign aid to Africa under his recently announced ‘modern Marshall plan”.

Mr Blair is meeting with Mr Bush ahead of next month’s G8 summit in Gleneagles. The meeting is a part of a round of talks the Prime Minister has arranged this month to discuss the subjects of Africa and climate change.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said that he would want to discuss increased aid, debt relief and trade and said that there were “large areas where we were in agreement with the US” and that both countries agreed that Africa was a “priority”.

However, Mr Bush has objected to the Chancellor’s plan for an International Finance Facility, which would provide debt relief, fund vaccinations and increase aid to developing countries, saying that the plans didn’t fit with the US “budgetary process”.

The US President is also opposed to the Kyoto Protocol agreement on climate change and he is believed to be in favour of a more technology-based solution to the problem.

It has been reported that Mr Blair will not be asking Mr Bush to agree to the Chancellor’s proposals or to sign up to the Kyoto agreement. However, his spokesman stressed that today’s meeting was only part of preparation for the Gleneagles summit and said that the US’ final position would be stated at the summit, which takes place between July 6 to July 8.

Mr Blair is also due to visit Vladimir Putin in Moscow, as well as hold talks with French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder before the Gleneagles summit. He will also hold video conferences with Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and Japan’s Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

Mr Blair recently met with his Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi and said that they were “in agreement” on key issues.

(KMcA/SP)

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