This also is culled from the Guardian.

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Debt campaigners send plea to Blair

Debt relief: special report
Jubilee 2000

Charlotte Denny
Saturday April 1, 2000

Debt campaigners yesterday called on Tony Blair to rescue a landmark deal
aimed at reducing the debts of the world's poorest countries.

Jubilee 2000 wants the prime minister to put debt relief on the agenda of the
next meeting of the Group of Seven leading economies, to be held in Japan in
June. Last September the G7 pledged radical expansion of debt relief measures
for the world's poorest countries, but the campaigners say progress has
stalled.

The campaigners say only five of the 11 countries which were to have had loan
burdens reduced by this month's meeting of the World Bank and International
Monetary Fund are on target for cuts.

"The prospects for progress before the end of the millennium year are equally
alarming," Jubilee 2000 said. The G7's target is for 24 countries to have
received debt relief by the end of 2000, but Jubilee 2000 say only 14 are
likely to make that deadline.

On Monday, Kofi Annan, secretary general of the United Nations, is expected
to criticise the G7's slow progress. He will call on main creditor nations to
follow Britain's lead and step beyond the official programme by writing off
all debts owed by the poorest countries.

Jubilee 2000 blames red tape imposed by the World Bank and the IMF on debtor
countries and feet-dragging by the G7.

President Clinton has yet to win Congress approval for funding to pay off the
debts owed to the Bank and IMF, while Japan is refusing to write off its
share of loans.


hkanteh

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