African poverty takes center stage as G8 kicks off summit in Japan

The African poverty that tops the agenda at the start of a three-day summit is closely linked with the rising food and fuel prices and global warming the G8 will tackle later in the week.

The G8 has invited seven African leaders to join the opening day of its annual summit, taking place on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.

"It is important to see this summit as arguably the most important G8 summit in a decade. The world is clearly facing multiple crises, serious, serious economic problems, both rich and poor countries. But it is poor people who suffer the most, suffering hugely from food price increases," Max Lawson, a policy adviser to Oxfam, a charity and advocacy group, told reporters.

At its 2005 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, the G8 agreed to double aid to Africa by 2010 as part of a wider drive to alleviate global poverty.  Â

But a report last month by the Africa Progress Panel, which was set up to monitor implementation of the Gleneagles commitments, said that under current spending plans the G8 will fall $40 billion short of its target.Â

"There are good plans being developed. We also know when efforts are made, great results can be achieved. But the problem is these plans are not being backed by serious financing," said Oliver Buston, a spokesman for activist group ONE.

"It is as if the G8 has built a car but they have not put any fuel in it. It is time for that to change."

LOSING TRACTION?

This year marks the half-way point in a drive to reach by 2015 eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the U.N. General Assembly in September 2000 to reduce world poverty.

Kodama acknowledged that Africa was well behind target on health, but added: "G8 leaders will certainly deliver a strong and concrete message to help African countries to achieve MDGs."

Oxfam, a British charity and advocacy group, said an early version of a statement to be issued after this week's meeting would set up accountability mechanisms for subsequent summits, particularly in health, a step that it said was welcome.

But it said the G8 -- the United States, Japan, France, Britain, Germany, Canada, Italy and Russia -- was making no major new financial commitments and was trying to water down a pledge at last year's summit in Germany to meet the Gleneagles goals.

With grain prices having doubled since January 2006, Africa needs more help, not less, activists say.

A preliminary World Bank study released last week estimated that up to 105 million more people could drop below the poverty line due to rising food prices, including 30 million in Africa.

In Liberia, the cost of food for a typical household jumped by 25 percent in January alone, increasing the poverty rate to over 70 percent from 64 percent, the study found.

"I cannot stand the idea that a food crisis born out of high energy prices and increasing global prosperity is starving the super-poor in Africa," rock star Bob Geldof, who will lobby G8 leaders at the summit, said in a statement last week.

Anti-G8 protests have become a regular part of the annual event, and on Monday hundreds of demonstrators from Japan and other countries marched in heavy rain toward the summit venue, carrying signs slamming the rich nations' cosy club.

Heavy security meant that they were kept several kilometers (miles) away.

"There is no end to the rise in oil prices and the G8 is not doing enough. They don't have a solution," said Renato Reyes, who came from the Philippines for the protest.

One group tried to take an unauthorized route, but were turned back by dozens of police carrying shields and shouting "Go back, go back". Scuffles were avoided after negotiations but some activists said they might try again the next day.

On Tuesday, discussions will turn to economic and political problems. The contentious issue of how to fight global warming will be the focus of an expanded meeting on Wednesday that will include China and India, two fast-growing economies that are pumping out more and more greenhouse gases.