07 June 2004 05:30
Bush invites six African leaders to G8 summit
ByLine: Peter Kahler, On Special Assignment
Savannah, US (PANA) - Host President George W. Bush has invited six African leaders to attend the 2004 Group of Eight
(G8) Summit slated for Sea Islands, Georgia, state department sources said here Monday. Those invited are Presidents
John Kufuor of Ghana, Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, Thabo
Mbeki of South Africa and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda. The African heads of state will attend the summit on 10 June, the
last day of deliberation, and later hold bilateral talks with G8 leaders from Canada, Italy, Germany, Britain, France,
Japan, Russia and US. The G8 is a block of the world's most industrialised nations which meets annually to discuss
international financial and economic trends, global peace and security and developments in Third World countries for
possible action by member states.
The European Union usually attends these summits. But reliable sources here said this year's G8 summit has
somewhat sidelined Africa, with the agenda dominated by the transition in Iraq, political reforms in the Greater Middle
East and rising price of oil and its implication for industrialised economies. Africa, the sources said, is being
considered at the level of its role in combating global terrorism and the possibility of the industrialised nations
looking forward to the continent's oil wells as an alternative to the oil-producing Middle East should relations
turn sour. The HIV/AIDS pandemic, democratic reforms and economic growth are expected to feature in talks between the G8
leaders and their African counterparts at the Sea Islands summit, outside here. But the crucial issues of Africa's
debt burden and greater access to markets in the industrialised nations may not feature in the talks, the sources told
PANA.
[Panafrican News Agency (PANA) Daily Newswire] |
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