London, July 1 :

The first full-scale audit of how the G8 group of leading industrialised nations has performed on their promises to the world’s poor since last year’s Gleneagles summit has revealed that rich countries are failing to meet almost all the targets they set themselves.

A year after billions watched last summer’s Live 8 concerts, the report, published by Data (Debt, Aids, Trade, Africa) — the organisation set up by Bob Geldof and the U2 singer Bono — said the industrialised countries had delivered on only one of their three priorities, debt relief.

They were ‘completely off track’ on trade and were doing less than half of what was needed on aid. On current trends, more than 1.5 million people would be deprived of treatment for HIV/Aids by 2010. Laun-ching the report, Geldof demanded the countries of the G8 make good their promises in full amid this evidence of backsliding since last year’s summit.

“The full promises must be implemented and nothing else will do”, he said at a press conference. “To the people who are backsliding, I say this: we are not going to give up.” The Gleneagles summit was the high point of Britain’s presidency of the G8 in 2005 and - after strong pressure from Tony Blair and the UK finance minister Gordon Brown - the meeting agreed to cancel debts owed by the poorest countries to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB) and the African Development Bank, to increase aid by $50 billion a year and to agree a trade deal that would help African nations to export.

The government has been pressing other G8 nations to keep their promises, and Blair this week set up a monitoring group chaired by Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, to ensure the momentum is maintained.

France, the lobby group said, was the only G8 country that had met its aid commitment.