Aid agency condemns progress on Blair's Africa plan

LONDON, Mar 11 (Reuters) A year after Britain's Tony Blair challenged the rich world to end trade protectionism and increase aid, many of the promised reforms have yet to materialise, Oxfam said on Saturday.

The aid agency said progress had been made on aid and debt but opportunities outlined in a report by the British Prime Minister's Africa Commission to make trade fair and limit the sale of small arms were not being exploited.

Britain was now shying away from leading on key issues, Oxfam said, a charge the government was quick to deny.

The Commission included Blair, his finance minister Gordon Brown, several African leaders and Irish rocker turned campaigner Bob Geldof. Its supporters likened its report to the post-World War Two ''Marshall Plan'' for recovery in Europe.

Hundreds of thousands of people attended rock concerts around the world last year to press for action against poverty and Oxfam Director Barbara Stocking said some of the British campaigners had helped to re-elect Blair in the hope his commitment to the issue could bring real change.

''Real advances were made on aid and debt, but opportunities to make trade fair and advance an international arms trade treaty are being missed,'' Stocking said in a statement.

In July 2005, the world's G8 group of industrialised countries agreed at a summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, to more than double aid to Africa by 2010.

But as negotiators from the European Union (EU), United States, India, Brazil, Japan and Australia met for talks in London on Saturday to discuss trade, Oxfam said it was worried rich nations would pursue a policy that would seriously undermine Africa's future economic development.

Stocking said the EU was doing the most harm.

''If the British Government is genuinely serious about its role as a champion of Africa's needs and of development, then they need to speak out publicly in favour of developing country demands and rip up the bad deal being sought by the EU in the name of the British government and other member states.'' Hilary Benn, the British minister for international development, said it was simply not true to say Britain was no longer taking a lead.

''This is a process, and it's a long hard slog, and we've got to keep at it,'' he told BBC Radio.

Geldof said Britain was far ahead of its allies on the issue of Africa but needed to seize the initiative again on trade.

''If trade is increased by just one per cent in Africa it is worth more than five times an increase in aid and debt relief,'' he told BBC Radio.

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