G8 Summit 2nd Day: Focus on Poverty and African Aid

Leaders of G8 countries enter the second day of the summit today being held in Gleneagles, Scotland. Climate change was the focus of discussions during the first day and now the focus will move to the issues of poverty and aid for Africa.

This year's G8 agenda on climate change consisted of concerns on general climate change and the efforts to decrease carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. President George Bush met during a working breakfast ahead of G8 talks' commencement. The first day was marked with differences on how they view the climate change issue, which is one of the main topics of the summit.

The provision of aid to the poorest countries of the world was agreed before the G8 summit, however, as Blair has called for more aid to Africa, he may face opposition from U.S. who are asking for conditions to be put in place before the funds are given.

Blair had made clear that he views the situation in Africa as very urgent and has emphasised the need to solve the problem now, otherwise it could cause huge problems in the future.

"There is a strong moral reason because there are thousands of children dying every day from preventable diseases," he said for in interview for CNN, "There are millions of people who have died from circumstances that are preventable over the past few years, through conflict, through famine and through disease."

On the other hand, Bush has insisted on the eradication of the corruption among African governments as the condition of upping the aid.

However, during his visit of Denmark on Tuesday, he stressed where the focus of the U.S. agenda lay: "Our primary focus in Africa is going to be to focus efforts on solving people's problems," Bush said during a news conference with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

"They have a problem with HIV and AIDS, and we're leading the world when it comes to contributions."

The G8 leaders from the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia in discussing the most urgent issues in the world, will meet the representatives of the countries that will be effected the most by the decisions of G8.

G8 leaders will talk with the leaders of the emerging countries as Brasil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa before the working dinner.

Even though Blair is facing strong opposition, he has the backing from stars from all over the world. Bono and Geldof, the organisers of the series of Live 8 concert have highlighted the need to change the situation in Africa.

The two music stars met Blair, Bush, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin to present the message of "Make Poverty History" and requested a drastic increase in aid to Africa.

Blair's goal is a doubling of the aid for Africa, which means approximately US$50 billion until 2010, and for G8 member countries increasing their foreign aid to 0.7% GDP.

Bush announced last week that he will seek to double Africa aid to more than US$8.6 billion by 2010, but private aid groups say this included some money already pledged and would fall short by about US$6 billion of the amount needed as America's share to get to the $50 billion total. Bush has also rejected setting a 0.7 GDP percent target for aid.

The hopes of millions rest on the summit to produce a joint agreement regulating aid for Africa.

The G8 Summit will close on Friday 8th July 2005.