Immediately after the massive 200,000-strong rally against poverty in Africa on Saturday in Edinburgh, the British Finance Minister Gordon Brown responded to the demonstrators at a church-organised gathering in the Scottish capital in the evening.

Sponsored by leading UK-based charity Christian Aid and co-hosted by the Church of Scotland, Brown addressed some 900 campaigners at the Church of Scotland Assembly Hall. He hailed the Live 8 concerts and a theme-setting Make Poverty History march as "a beacon of hope" ahead of next week's G8 summit.

"Make Poverty History is exposing the sorrows of the left-out millions and is a beacon of hope pointing the way to a better future," he said.

Brown, a Scot and an active member of the church in which his father served as a minister, has been closely allied with British Prime Minister Tony Blair to push the G7 nations - USA, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan and Russia - to adopt specific policies aimed at eradicating poverty in Africa.

Progress has already been visible as the G7 nations have agreed to write-off the debt of some 18 poorest countries in the world. The deal is widely seen as a great breakthrough, but Brown is still expected to push forward his so-called "Marshall Plan", which urges G7 nations to adopt fair trade policy and increase international aid.

"We are affirming today that we are of one moral universe and that to tackle the greatest evil of our times, ours must now become the greatest moral crusade of our times," Brown said in a passionate speech at the Church yesterday.

"Twenty years ago, the call was for charity, donations to the powerless and the poor. Today, at Live 8, the call is for justice, the empowerment of the powerless and the poor," Brown said, comparing Saturday's events to the 1985 Live Aid concerts to raise funds for famine-hit Ethiopia.

Brown encouraged the campaigners, saying that the anti-poverty movement does not simply end at Saturday’s rally.

"As long as some are poor, our whole society is impoverished," he said. "As long as some are deprived our whole world is diminished and as long as there is an injustice anywhere it is an affront to justice everywhere.

"We have come a long way and have still a long way to go," he added. "This is more than a week's work at the G8. It is a lifetime's work across the world."

Brown also acknowledged the fact that children are the vulnerable ones who are suffering the most in times of poverty. According to astonishing official figures, one child in Africa dies of poverty every 3 seconds.

"Is not the enduring truth, at the heart of the mission of the G8 summit and at the heart of what all of us here believe - that every single child is precious, every child is unique and every child is special," he said.

In Brown’s "Marshall Plan", he promised to provide free education and health care for all Africans, which is part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the United Nations.