Bush to Offer Africa £370m Famine Relief

George Bush is expected to meet Britain's Africa agenda only part way with the announcement of £370m for famine relief when he appears at a joint press conference in Washington today with Tony Blair.

The expected promise falls far short of Mr Blair's hopes for a long-term US commitment to Africa ahead of next month's G8 summit in Scotland, but allows the prime minister to claim some progress from his White House visit.

Aid agencies criticised the move, claiming it did not go nearly far enough.

"If this is President Bush's only response to the crisis in Africa, we think he cannot be serious about alleviating poverty," said Jonathan Glennie, a senior policy analyst from Christian Aid.

"The sum of £370m is a drop in the ocean compared to what Africa really needs - to reach the UN millennium development goals requires an extra £15bn to £20bn per year in aid. Let us hope this is only his opening gambit."

Mr Blair's official spokesman warned last night against prejudging the Gleneagles G8 meeting on the basis of today's talks. "This visit is part of the preparation for Gleneagles, not Gleneagles itself," he said.

"So we are not expecting... to see the final US position. That will come at Gleneagles."

In an interview in today's Financial Times, Mr Blair conceded. however, that the British effort to secure Washington's support for a scheme to double aid to Africa by tapping the international capital markets was now at an end.

The international finance facility, a brainchild of the chancellor, Gordon Brown, would allow governments to spend future aid money now, but Mr Blair told the paper it was one of "certain things we know that they are not going to, that we are not asking them to do".

His visit to Washington is part of a round of shuttle diplomacy to build international agreement on aid and measures to tackle climate change under Britain's chairmanship of the G8 group of industrialised nations.

Mr Bush has previously said that Mr Brown's proposed IFF - which would allow poor countries to raise development funds on the international money markets - "doesn't fit our budgetary process". He is also opposed to the Kyoto protocol, favouring instead a technology-based solution to climate change.

Hopes of a deal at Gleneagles depend heavily on support from Washington, but the signals being sent out ahead of today's talks indicate Mr Blair is unlikely to receive as much backing from Mr Bush as he would like.

A senior White House official said that Mr Bush and Mr Blair would announce a joint initiative, focusing on the food needs of people vulnerable to famine in Ethiopia and Eritrea as well as humanitarian needs in other African countries.

In addition to the £370m, the US has earmarked $1.4bn (£767m) requested by the UN to address emergency needs. The two leaders are also due to call on other countries to increase their commitment to address humanitarian emergencies in Africa.

The US has long supported the idea of 100% debt cancellation, and has now agreed in principle that extra cash must be provided by the G8 nations, the World Bank and the IMF to make up the lost interest payments due to the World Bank and owed by the African nations.

Debt campaigners in the US, including rock star Bono, are increasingly optimistic of a breakthrough. They have enlisted the support of Brad Pitt, George Clooney and evangelical preacher Pat Robertson in an attempt to create the kind of political pressure now being stoked by Geldof's Live 8 in Britain.

The deal would apply to as many as 20 African countries, but the precise criteria, including possible yardsticks on good governance, are being discussed with EU nations.