African leaders call on G8 for continent-wide debt write-off

ABUJA, Nigeria, Monday (AFP) Six African heads of state meeting in the Nigerian capital Sunday called on next month's G8 summit in Scotland to cancel the debt of all African countries.

In a statement the leaders commended the recent decision of finance ministers of the world's most industrialised nations to cancel the debt of 18, mostly African nations, as "progress" and called "for steps to be taken to include all African countries".

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, whose country holds the current rotating presidency of the African Union, chaired the meeting, which was also attended by presidents Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, John Kufuor of Ghana, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa.Mozambique Prime Minister Luisa Diogo was also present at the meeting to consider a progress report on the UN Millennium Development Goals ahead of next month's G8 summit in Scotland, while Benin, Egypt and Senegal were also represented.

The Group of Eight industrialised countries earlier in June struck a landmark deal to write off immediately all multilateral debt owed by 18 countries, 14 of them in Africa, amounting to 40 billion dollars (33 billion euros).

In their statement the African leaders also asked for more funding for the African Union's peace and security programme and for development assistance to double over three years and to continue to rise so Africa can meet its millennium goals.