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DURBAN, South Africa, June 7 (AFP) - A three-day World Economic Forum meeting on Africa's rescue plan ends here Friday with developed countries due to respond to challenges from delegates representing the business community and African governments.

In a session chaired by former US president Jimmy Carter, who is in South Africa to work on a housing project, the meeting will look at expectations by the developed world of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).

Market access, debt relief and development assistance will be discussed at the last day of the meeting of the Swiss-based forum attended by eight African presidents and some 700 delegates from 47 countries, 26 of them African.

Africa will expect concrete responses this month from the G8 industrialised nations on debt reduction and market access, South African President Thabo Mbeki declared Thursday as business leaders endorsed a rescue plan for the continent.

"We have raised the debt question and said that this matter has to be addressed afresh," Mbeki told the WEF delegates.

"We would expect a commitment from the G8 on the issue of market access with all sorts of goods from the continent including agricultural products.

"What must come out of the June meeting with the G8 is a commitment to actual projects. There must be a programme of action to do things rather than discuss things."

The meeting is evaluating business support for the NEPAD ahead of a G8 summit of highly developed nations on June 26-27 in Kananaskis, Canada.

G8 leaders have come out in support of NEPAD, notably Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, the current G8 chairman, who made a five-country tour of Africa in April and pronounced that he was impressed by it.

Adopted by African heads of state in Abuja last October, NEPAD aims to rework the relationship between Africa and the developed world from one of beggar-philanthropist to equal partners with a common goal -- developing the continent not as an act of charity but for the sake of global security and prosperity.

It envisages annual investment of some 64 billion dollars (68 billion euros) and an annual gross domestic product growth rate target of more than seven percent for the next 15 years. It also aims to reduce the number of Africans living in extreme poverty by half by 2015. - Nampa-AFP

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