U.K. leads push for debt relief

BRIGHTON, England – Britain will provide more debt relief for the world’s poorest countries and challenge other rich countries to do the same, Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government said Sunday.

Treasury chief Gordon Brown said many developing countries were crippled by servicing their debt and could not invest in their infrastructure.

“We will pay our share of the multilateral debt repayments of reforming low-income countries,” Brown said in a statement, released by the Department of International Development.

“We will make payments in their stead to the World Bank and African Development Bank for the portion that relates to Britain’s share of this debt. We do this alone today but I urge other countries to follow so that over-indebted countries are relieved of the burden of servicing all unpayable multilateral debt.”

The Treasury said it earmarked $180 million per year until 2015 to pay for the initiative.

In a speech to a “Vote for Trade Justice” event at a church in Brighton, the coastal town where the governing Labour Party is holding its annual conference, Brown said it was vital to remove damaging trade barriers and invest in poor countries so they had the capacity to trade.

Britain’s Development Secretary Hilary Benn said poor countries needed “significant additional resources” to “lift people out of poverty, get children into primary schools and improve basic health.”