BRITAIN:Britain's race watchdog called on the government to help properly "atone" for slavery as prime minister Tony Blair expressed his "deep sorrow" over the horrific trade.
While welcoming Mr Blair's condemnation, Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) chairman Trevor Phillips said actions spoke louder than words.
Contemporary types of slavery, including the trafficking of women and children from Africa, Europe and the Far East, needed to be tackled, he said, along with the under-achievement and poor education of many ethnic minorities.
Mr Phillips told the CRE race convention in central London yesterday that if next year's 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery was to be a truly momentous occasion then the government needed to act.
"If 2007 is to mean anything it must be atonement for the past, yes, but it must also be a platform to provide for the future.
"A future of more racial equality, a future of less racial discrimination and a future of real integration of all our diverse people."
Mr Phillips said he was not worried that Mr Blair had stopped short of a full apology for the "monstrous crime of transatlantic slavery".
He said: "I and families like mine have waited three or four centuries for somebody to say this should not have happened and Tony Blair, a world leader, seems to have been the first to have done that and all credit to him."
However, Kofi Mawuli Klu, of rights group Rendezvous of Victory, said: "Blair's article is taking a backward step from Britain's official position in 1807 when it abolished the trade and expressed regret for what had happened.
"This has heightened feelings among people in the African community. We want an apology of substance that addresses the demands for African reparations," he added.
Culture minister David Lamy defended Mr Blair's statement.
"He struck the right balance between providing for the future, commemorating the past and moving forward as a multi-ethnic nation," Mr Lamy told the BBC.
Commemorations are planned for March next year to mark the 1807 Slave Trade Act, when Britain was the first major slave- trafficking nation to outlaw the trade. Between 10 million and 28 million Africans were shipped in appalling conditions to the Americas and sold into slavery between 1450 and the early 19th century.