World leaders put the finishing touches on a significant aid package for Africa on Friday, but shortened the Group of Eight summit in Scotland to allow British Prime Minister Tony Blair to return to London following yesterday's rush-hour attacks.

The leaders were able to reach a compromise on the two most important issues of the summit - Africa poverty aid and the environment. However, they fell short on some key goals, according to the Associated Press, which obtained a draft copy of the statement to be read later today at the end of the June 6-8 conference.

Yesterday, the leaders from eight of the most influential industrial nations condemned attacks in London that occurred just as they were preparing for their second day of talks.

"We are united in our resolve to confront and defeat this terrorism that is not an attack on one nation, but on all nations and on civilised people every where," read Blair in a joint statement within hours of the explosion.

Despite the attacks and changes to their meeting schedules, the leaders pressed on with the talks they had set out to do. The final press conference would be moved up an hour ahead of the originally planned time, according to AP.

The aid package is expected to include a pledge to double aid to Africa by 2002 to reduce poverty and disease in the world's poorest continent -- a key objective of Blair in the months preceding the summit. However, it fell short of the goal to raise foreign aid to the equivalent of 0.7 percent of each G8 nation's economy by 2015, according to the Associated Press.

AP also reported that the other major goal of the summit was to come to an agreement of global warming. The leaders did not set specific targets and a timetable to reducing greenhouse emissions.

The communique to be issued did included a stronger section on terrorism. The leaders and their aids worked until late at night on the document, and what their countries doing about it.

The G8 nations are Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United States.





Francis Helguero
Christian Today Contributor