'Britain to pressure US on anti-poverty plans'
AFP, London
Britain is to pressure the United States to fully back its ambitious push to tackle poverty in the developing world at this week's G7 meeting in London, finance minister Gordon Brown said. Britain would be seeking to persuade Washington that measures such as debt relief were not only good fiscal sense but also prevented the spread of terrorism, Chancellor of the Exchequer Brown told the Guardian. "We will be trying to persuade America that debt relief and extra finance for development is in its interests not just because it is good economics and social policy but good for its security as well," he told the paper. Brown is to host a meeting of the finance ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) industrialised nations' club in London from Friday, while US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is also to visit Britain as part of a European tour. The chancellor will be trying to sell his vision of a so-called Marshall Plan for Africa, a concerted development programme named after the US scheme to rebuild Europe after World War II.
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