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Friday, June 28, 2002 - Web posted at 6:48:09 am GMT

CALGARY, Alberta, June 27 (Reuters) - The world's richest countries on Thursday signed an agreement with African leaders to support development, but the plan was long on advice and short on much-needed new cash.

The leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States said half or more of new aid for development they promised last March could go to African countries that root out corruption.

The rich countries, on the final day of a two-day summit in the Canadian Rockies, also promised to pay their share of up to $1 billion needed to top up a debt-relief program for poor countries.

And they pledged to work to provide greater market access for African goods, support African efforts to resolve armed conflicts, and help the continent combat AIDS. French President Jacques Chirac said next year's summit would also focus on Africa.

But independent aid groups said the G8 Africa Action Plan, while detailed on what African nations must do, spectacularly failed to live up to its billing by British Prime Minister Tony Blair as a "Marshall Plan" for Africa.

"Blair and company have spent a year talking up this summit, but in the end they have turned their backs on Africa," said Phil Twyford, a spokesman for Oxfam International.

South African President Thabo Mbeki, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade and Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who attended part of the summit, said they acknowledged that the burden was on Africa to solve its own problems.

They and other African leaders were seeking support for a New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), a plan that pledges corruption-free governments reviewed by other African countries in return for aid.

"NEPAD in the first instance is an African commitment," Mbeki told a news conference.

Mbeki and the other leaders said they were pleased with the G8 commitment. "I arrived as an optimistic man and I depart an optimistic man," Senegal's Wade said.

The outcome was a setback for Blair and for Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who pushed for all G8 countries to earmark for Africa half of the new money promised at a U.N. conference in Mexico in March.

In the end, they had to settle for a weaker statement that each country would decide how to allocate the money.

Blair was positive about the plan, saying: "This isn't old-fashioned aid, it is a genuine partnership for the renewal of Africa. Today's document will send out a signal of hope."

Canadian officials said that at the meeting, U.S. President George W. Bush was reluctant to commit U.S. money to a specific region. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi wanted his country's aid to focus on Asia and the Pacific, they said.

Bush, who last month signed a law increasing subsidies for U.S. farmers, also resisted a strong statement on improving trade access for African countries. Canada unilaterally pledged to lift tariffs on goods from 48 poor countries, 34 of them in Africa, by Jan. 1 next year.

African countries, heavily reliant on crops like coffee and cotton, complain they are at the mercy of farm subsidies in rich countries and are being left out of trade liberalization.

Obasanjo, speaking after the signing, said he was satisfied with the G8 commitment. But he said, "Of course, there is nothing that is human that can be regarded as perfect." Nampa-Reuters