Doubling aid:

Tony Blair called the outcome of the summit in Scotland an “alternative to the hatred.” The leaders of eight of the world’s richest countries agreed to help the world’s poorest by

doubling of their aid to Africa, to $50 billion a year by 2010 from the current level of $25 billion.

The success of the meeting owed much to the generous, disciplined agenda set by Blair. Yet the meeting fell short of his expectations. The foot-dragging of the United States, particularly on the issue of global warming and aid, was largely responsible for most of these shortcomings. The conference also agreed to cancel the debts of many countries, to do more to fight diseases like AIDS and malaria, and to reduce trade barriers.

They also pledged as much as $3 billion a year to help the Palestinians after Israel withdraws later this summer from Gaza and parts of the West Bank. The conference fell well short, however, of ending the agricultural subsidies that help keep farmers in developing nations in poverty. And Blair was not successful in his broader effort to persuade the United States to set a timetable for increasing its overall foreign aid to a level equal to 0.7 percent of national income by 2015. The US provides 0.16 per cent, the smallest percentage of any of the Group of 8 countries. Europe agreed to a timetable, but Bush would not. — The New York Times