Ghanaian Finance Minister Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu urged the G8 countries on Friday to fulfil their pledge on increasing development aid to Africa.
Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of G8 finance ministers here, Baah-Wiredu said: "Africa needs appropriate financial help."
"I hope the promises will be fulfilled," he said, adding that the African countries primarily required assistance to improve their infrastructure.
Earlier, in an open letter published in the Financial Times, more than 60 luminaries, including five Nobel prize winners, had similarly called on the world's richest nations to honor their promises to end poverty.
The signatories included Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former archbishop Desmond Tutu and former German finance minister Hans Eichel.
Charity and international aid agency Oxfam charged the G8 -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US and Russia -- with failing to keep the promise it made at its 2005 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, to increase aid to Africa to US$50 billion a year.
"G8 finance ministers are desperately trying to avoid any discussion of their failure to deliver promised aid to Africa," Oxfam said.
It said that although five African finance ministers were attending the two days of talks on the shores of Lake Schwielowsee in Germany, the G8 ministers were hoping to limit the Africa topic on budget transparency and avoid all discussion of the "massive shortfall in promised aid."
Oxfam policy adviser Max Lawson said: "Of course African countries should be transparent with their budgets and improve financial governance, and many are doing just that, but this cannot be used as an excuse to avoid discussion of the G8's own financial failings."
Africa advocacy group Debt AIDS Trade Africa (DATA) said that in addition to the issue on financial governance in Africa, the meeting of the G8 ministers should "also be accompanied by a debate on why the G8 could not keep its promise."
DATA Europe head Oliver Buston said: "There is a credibility crisis in the G8 when it comes to Africa."
At the presidency new briefing ahead of the start of the meeting, G8 host, German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck, was tight-lipped on a newspaper report that Berlin was planning to boost its own development aid by 2 billion euros to 3 billion euros (US$2.7 billion to US$4 billion) over the next four years.
"I can't give you any information on that at present," Steinbrueck said.
According to a report in the business daily Handelsblatt, German Chancellor Angela Merkel wants Germany to adhere to agreements made with the EU on increasing the development aid budget to 0.51 percent of the GDP by 2010 compared with the current 0.36 percent.
Merkel wanted the G8 countries to send a "Message of Trust" to Africa during the summit of G8 leaders next month, the newspaper said.
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