国际英语新闻：G8 summit opens with focus on Africa on Day 1

TOYAKO, Japan, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Some African leaders and the UN chief on Monday called on the leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations to fulfill their commitments on increasing aid to Africa as they met with the G8 leaders on the first day of the G8 summit in the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.

    Climate change, the world economy and African development figure high on the agenda of the Toyako summit of the G8, which groups Britain, Canada, Italy, Japan, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.

Group of Eight (G8) leaders pose for a photograph in front of bamboo for Japan's traditional star festival during a social event at the Windsor Hotel Toya in Toyako Town, Hokkaido, Japan, on Monday, July 7, 2008. From left to right, the leaders are Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Japan's Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, U.S. President George W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission

The G8 leaders talked with the presidents of Algeria, South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, Tanzania and Ethiopia on aid to Africa and other issues Monday afternoon at the hilltop Windsor Hotel in Toyako, a resort town on the northern island of Hokkaido.     

    AFRICA, UN TO G8: HONOR PLEDGES

    UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who attended the G8 session with African leaders, urged the G8 nations to take concrete actions to honor their commitments made in 2005 of doubling aid to Africa by 2010.

    "The G8 leaders should implement what they committed in Gleneagles by providing necessary funds," Ban told a press conference after the session, adding that Africa also demands better predictability in aid and aid efficiency.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (R) speaks at the UN-WB Joint Press Conference in Toyako, Hokkaido, Japan on July 7, 2008. The United Nations and World Bank held a joint press conference focusing on the global food and fuel crisis, climate change and progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals in Toyako on Monday

A report issued last month by the Africa Progress Panel, which was set up to monitor the implementation of the Gleneagles commitments, said that under current spending plans, the G8 will fall 40 billion dollars short of its target.

    The UN chief said this year marks the half-way point in the global efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015,"but that progress in many African countries is not on track."

    Speaking at the same press conference, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said the leaders also discussed a system to better track the aid to ensure commitments were honored.

    "Countries need to deliver on their promises, and that was the tone that was generally accepted in the discussion," he said.

    Kazuo Kodama, press secretary of the Japanese Foreign Ministry, told reporters that African countries told the G8 leaders that they should "fully" implement the many aid promises made to Africa.

    The African and G8 leaders also discussed surging oil and food prices, agricultural development in Africa, trade and investment and the Millennium Development Goals, he said.