HEILIGENDAMM, June 8 (RIA Novosti) - Leaders of the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations formally agreed on the final day of their summit in Germany to allocate $60 billion to fight AIDS, malaria and TB in Africa.
In a joint declaration on Growth and Responsibility in Africa, the leaders also invited other donors to join the initiative, proposed by the United States, which has pledged $30 billion of the total.
"We will continue our efforts towards these goals [fighting HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis on a sustainable basis] to provide at least a projected $60 billion over the coming years, and invite other donors to contribute as well," the declaration said.
Aid agencies were quick to point out that the declaration failed to set out a definite timetable or specify the contributions of individual countries, and did not clarify how much of the sum had been previously pledged.
The G8 members are Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, the United States, Canada and Russia (since 1998).
Russia initially said it was caught by surprise by the new U.S. proposal announced by President George W. Bush on the eve of the current summit in Germany, but later reaffirmed its support for the initiative.
A source in the Russian delegation at the summit said: "A substantial part of these funds will be used to combat AIDS, TB, malaria, and to strengthen health systems."
About 63% of all the people in the world infected with HIV live in Africa. Every year, malaria kills nearly one million people globally. Around 90% of the deaths occur in Africa, mostly of young children. Tuberculosis kills 5,000 people every day, mostly young adults in their most productive years.
