Leaders of the Group of Eight major powers issued a joint action plan for Africa, offering to funnel at least $6 billion of recent new aid commitments to the continent.
The leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United States and Russia issued a G8 Africa Action Plan to drive its future development after meeting in the Canadian Rockies resort with four African leaders.
"The case for action is compelling," the G8 plan said.
The plan is a response to a commitment by Africans to produce clean government and strong economic policies in return for rich nations' renewed investment and official state aid to battle HIV/AIDS, fight poverty and provide basic education for all.
Those promises are contained in a home-grown New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).
"We will match their commitment with a new commitment on our own part to promote peace and security in Africa, to boost expertise and capacity, to encourage trade and direct growth-oriented investment and to provide more effective official development assistance," the G8 action plan said.
The G8 leaders noted that in the run-up to a major development conference held in Monterrey, Mexico in March, they had announced new commitments boosting government aid by 12 billion dollars a year by 2006.
"Each of us will decide, in accordance with our respective priorities and procedures, how we will allocate the additional money we have pledged," the leaders said.
"Assuming strong African policy commitments, and given recent assistance trends, we believe that in aggregate half or more of our new development assistance could be directed to African nations that govern justly, invest in their own people and promote economic freedom."
The G8 vowed to fund its share of any shortfall in an IMF-World Bank program to provide debt relief to the most impoverished, debt-laden nations, known as the highly-indebted poor countries (HIPC) initiative.
Leaders of four African nations - Nigerian President Mr Olusegun Obasanjo, Algerian President Mr Abdelaziz Bouteflika, South African President Mr Thabo Mbeki and Senegalese President Mr Abdoulaye Wade - attended the summit to secure the deal.
AFP