British chancellor Gordon Brown has hailed the global Live 8 concerts and the Make Poverty History campaign as "a beacon of hope" for the world, writes Frank Millar, London Editor
And he has declared it the "duty" of world leaders at this week's G8 summit to answer the call to action over aid, debt and trade justice.
Bob Geldof, who inspired and led the Live 8 event on Saturday which had a television audience around the world estimated at two billion, has written to the G8 leaders telling them they are "the real stars of the show".
Mr Brown yesterday acknowledged it will take more than one G8 meeting to determine the future of Africa. However, agreements on debt relief and the doubling of aid by 2010 have been largely achieved ahead of the meeting which begins at Gleneagles, near Edinburgh, on Wednesday.
There is anxiety in London about the mood and disposition of French president Jacques Chirac, which could even be affected by Wednesday's decision on the venue for the 2012 Olympics. This was openly acknowledged by aides yesterday as Mr Blair arrived in Singapore to support the London bid.
With London in hot competition with Paris, British officials say they "simply do not know" how the president will approach key negotiations on trade reform and climate change when he arrives in Scotland some time after Mr Blair on Wednesday.
Bowing to the reality of American resistance, Mr Blair is hoping to "leapfrog the theology" about the science of climate change and to secure some measure of agreement on practical changes in environmental policy.
This approach was encapsulated by British environment secretary Margaret Beckett when she said last week: "The theology is less important than action."
The concern in Whitehall, however, has been that president Chirac may seek to isolate US president George Bush by insisting that the Kyoto treaty is the only basis for action.
Mr Blair is also hoping Gleneagles will provide momentum for the World Trade Organisation talks in Hong Kong in December. However, with the British and French already joined in battle over the EU budget and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), president Chirac may not have been moved by chancellor Brown's weekend call for a deadline within this decade for the abolition of export subsidies.
Addressing a rally after more than 200,000 people had marched through Edinburgh on Saturday, Mr Brown made clear his determination to fight for the reform of trade barriers preventing African farmers competing in the global market.
"Let us make these unacceptable trade subsidies history," he declared.
"Let us make waste in the CAP history, let us make developed country protectionism history."
Congratulating the Live 8 and Make Poverty History campaigners for raising awareness of the need to tackle poverty in Africa, Mr Brown said they had helped to secure 100 per cent debt relief for 38 countries and a doubling of aid, even before the G8 summit.
However, he promised Britain would continue its campaign to extend this to another 38 countries, while acknowledging: "We have come a long way and still have a long way to go. "This is more than a week's work at the G8. It is a lifetime's work across the world."
He repeated that message on the BBC yesterday, insisting: "It is a lifetime's work where we empower the people of Africa and the developing countries to make decisions for themselves." Ahead of the G8, British sources are also stressing the contract nature of the proposed deal, requiring African countries to address the issues of governance and corruption.