GLENEAGLES, (Scotland), July 8 (RIA Novosti, Alxander Smotrov, Anna Bobina)--The leaders of the world's leading industrialized nations will wrap up their summit Friday in the Gleneagles Hotel near Edinburgh against the backdrop of Thursday's terrorist attacks in London.
In line with the summit's program, the G8 leaders will discuss Africa. After the morning session, the heads of state and government of South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Ghana, Senegal, Egypt and Algeria, as well as the president of the African Union and the heads of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, will join the proceedings.
The president of the European Commission is also set to attend a number of important events before the G8 leaders give a news conference on Friday to conclude the summit.
In the run-up to the event, Sir Michael Jay, the official representative of the British premier to the G8, told journalists that the group's finance ministers had reached agreement on a 100% debt write-off of the 18 poorest countries in the world, most of which are in Africa.
Sergei Storchak, the director of the Russian Finance Ministry's department for international financial relations, told journalists that the G8 aid to Africa would be worth $55-59 billion in the next few years.
According to the official, the "Blair plan," as the document on Africa is unofficially known within the G8, was the source of some difficult discussions. "Britain is insisting on including very specific commitments in the plan," Storchak said. "Far from every country agreed with this approach."
The official said that a number of countries, including Russia, were not ready to assume budgetary commitments to help the poor countries for several years into the future.
Thirteen key documents are expected to be adopted at the end of the summit. A joint declaration on climate change was postponed from Thursday to Friday.
Russian presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko told journalists that a decision would be made on a bilateral meeting between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Vladimir Putin on Friday.
