Posted on July 8, 2005

G-8 Leaders Agree on $50B in African Aid

Martin Crutsinger, AP, July 8

GLENEAGLES, Scotland — World leaders wrapping up an economic summit shaken by terrorism agreed Friday on an “alternative to the hatred” — a $50 billion aid package for Africa and $3 billion in additional support for the Palestinians.

“We speak today in the shadow of terrorism, but it will not obscure what we came here to achieve,” British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the summit host, said to close the three-day gathering.

“It isn’t all that everyone wanted but it is progress — real, achievable progress.”

With a last-minute pledge from Japan, Blair won a key victory, announcing that aid to Africa would rise from the current $25 billion annually to $50 billion by 2010.

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In his closing statement Friday, Blair said: “There is no hope in terrorism, nor any future in it worth living. And it is hope that is the alternative to this hatred, so we offer today this contrast with the politics of terror.”

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