Britain's finance minister urged other rich nations to follow London's lead as he announced it was dropping its right to interest on the debts of another 21 very poor countries.
At a rally in London organized by debt relief campaign group Jubilee 2000, Chancellor Gordon Brown said the interest payments should be placed in a fund for poverty reduction programs.
"Never again will Britain benefit from income from these historic debts and from now on all debt payments will be put at the service of poverty relief," he said.
"When the need is so great and the need is so urgent, it is time to ensure that the richest countries who have so much should not receive from now on any further benefit from the debts of those countries who have so little."
He insisted the campaign to help the poor should not stop with Britain writing off its debts, but should be extended to debts owed to other industrialized states and to a "global alliance" to halve worldwide poverty.
Other rich nations should renounce their right to interest payments as well, Brown said.
The project would relieve interest payments on some ?1 billion (US$1.4 billion) of debt owed by countries embroiled in various types of civil conflict.
The announcement took to 41 the number of very poor countries granted debt interest relief by Britain in the past year. Total relief amounts to ?1.6 billion.
Brown and Clare Short, the minister for overseas aid, are reported to have begun lobbying the other G7 nations in the hope they will follow Britain's lead.
Brown said 20 of the 41 countries were due to benefit by the end of the year from a World Bank and IMF debt relief scheme.
The other 21, however, have still to secure similar debt relief due to civil war, external conflict or the absence of poverty reduction programs.
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