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G8 hands Africa billions

World leaders announced a US$50 billion boost in development aid yesterday, declaring the deal was a message of hope that countered the hatred behind the London bomb attacks.

"We speak today in the shadow of terrorism but it will not obscure what we came here to achieve," British Prime Minister Tony Blair declared, flanked by fellow leaders of the G8 states and seven of their African counterparts.

Blair, who skipped much of Thursday's session to handle the aftermath of the bombs in London, did not give a timetable for reaching the aid target.

Campaigners said they understood the deal was to double overall aid to some US$100 billion by 2010, with about half of that destined for Africa. They had pressed for the boost immediately, saying a delay would cost millions of lives.

"There is no hope in terrorism or any future in it worth living and it is hope that is the alternative to this hatred," Blair said on the steps of the Gleneagles hotel.

"We offer today this contrast with the politics of terror," he said.

"It isn't all everyone wanted but it is progress, real and achievable progress," he said. "It isn't the end of poverty in Africa, but it is the hope that it can be ended."

They agreed to start a dialogue on Nov. 1 with the major emerging economies on how to slow down and later reverse the rise in greenhouse gases which cause global warming.

Environmental groups have criticized their accord as too vague to pose a serious challenge to climate change.

The leaders pledged to end farm-export aid but set no deadline. They also called for renewed efforts to conclude a new phase of world trade liberalization by the end of next year.

Blair had been determined that his twin priorities of action on global warming and African poverty would not be wrecked by the London bombings.

But he brought forward his closing news conference by one hour yesterday to allow him to head back to London in the early afternoon and take charge of the crisis.

Blair also announced a US$3 billion aid deal for the Palestinian Authority -- a pledge he said would allow "two states, Israel and Palestine, two peoples and two religions [to] live side by side in peace."
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