Africa: Tony Blair and other centre-left government leaders vowed yesterday to press for progress on global trade talks, saying failure to reach a deal would be devastating for the world's poor.
"We've agreed to try to break the logjam blocking progress on the world trade talks. It's a shared perspective that we have reached a critical stage in the talks," said Mr Blair at the end of a two-day summit of seven world leaders in South Africa.
"What is clear is that failure on the world trade round would be a devastating blow to the poorest countries in the world," he told a news conference.
South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, hosted the Progressive Governance Summit attended by Mr Blair and leaders from Brazil, South Korea, Ethiopia, New Zealand and Sweden.
Mr Blair said it was clear that the world faced a number of crucial decisions this year on development assistance to Africa, fighting climate change and particularly reforming the world trade system.
He said: "2006 is the year when the world decides whether it is going to be ambitious on world trade, which has huge implications for action on world poverty." He added that leaders at the meeting were open to a Brazilian suggestion for a summit of wealthy western nations to push for a framework global agreement before a deadline at the end of April but it was too early to finalise any such plan.
"There may come a point where, to give a real push to the talks, heads of government in some form may meet. But there are sensitivities and there are issues we've got to discuss with other partners before we can come to a conclusion," he said.
Alan Johnson, the British trade and industry secretary, who was also attending the summit, said: "The cancellation of debt for Africa is important. The doubling of aid to Africa is important. But trade talks dwarf all of that.
"We can increase the African economies by seven times as much as all the aid just by reaching agreement on an ambitious outcome of the Doha round [ of trade talks] in the next few months."
At December's World Trade Organisation meeting in Hong Kong, ministers set the end of April as the deadline for a draft deal on opening agricultural and industrial markets, a key part of the WTO's so-called Doha round of negotiations.
Mr Blair said he was optimistic about governance in Africa despite setbacks such as a corruption scandal rocking Kenya and allegations of human rights abuses in Ethiopia, until recently one of Britain's favoured African governments.
"I think if you look at Africa over the last few decades the movement has been one way towards a greater democracy.
"The interesting thing about Kenya is that it is an international issue. The government is under pressure to act and people are not just shrugging their shoulders," he added.
He said that while increased aid was important, reforming trade rules, particularly on rich nations' domestic agricultural subsidies, in World Trade Organisation talks could go a long way to improving Africa's welfare. "
- (Guardian Service; additional reporting Reuters)