From Agence France Presse
 Afrcan leaders pledge to tackle poverty 'head on'

LIBREVILLE, Jan 19 (AFP)-African leaders closed a summit here Wednesday by
declaring their determination to tackle poverty"head on" in the world's
poorest continent.
The Libreville Declaration issued at the end of the two-day meeting of
about 20 African heads of state and government said the participants
recognised "that poverty reduction is a challenge that they must take up
themselves."  "As a result, they express their determination to attack it
head on with the support of their development partners," the statement added
The summit was held in the Gabonese capital under the aegis of the IMF,
with top staff of the IMF, the World Bank and the African Development Bank
participati
ng.
 The text praised the IMF's new Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility,
which it said should lead to a "new approach to cooperation between
beneficiary countries, multilateral institutions and other lenders."
 The leaders vowed to "redouble efforts to promote strong and lasting
growth and to reduce poverty, notably to eliminating unproductive spending
and improving education, health, social services and basic infrastructure."
 They set the goal of reducing African poverty by half by 2015 and planned
to set up a committee to monitor implementation of the summit's
recommendations.
 "Africa is a continent endowed with a great untapped potential, and the
goal at the threshold of the new millenium is to fully realise this
potential and to transform it into sustained and comprehensive
development," the declaration said.
 The heads of state and government renew their solemn appeal to the
internationa
l community for the cancellation of African debt.
 the summiteers hailed the Group of Eight industrialised countries for
deciding at their summit in Cologne, Germany, last June to slash 70 billion
dollars off the more than 200 billion dollars in debt of the world's
poorest nations.
 The declaration added that Africa wanted its "development partners to
substantially reduce the time needed for access to debt relief."

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