LONDON, Dec 2 (AFP) - Britain will give priority to tackling global poverty, climate change and the AIDS epidemic when it assumes the presidency of the Group of Eight nations in 2005, the government said Thursday.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown told parliament he had written to fellow finance ministers of the world's industrialised countries, spelling out Britain's main aims for next year.
The agenda includes setting up an international finance facility designed to double aid and halve poverty, providing 100 percent multilateral debt relief, completing the Doha development round of World Trade Organisation negotiations and boosting research into AIDS.
"Britain making its G8 presidency count to meet the needs of the developing world," Brown said as he unveiled his pre-budget report.
The chancellor said Britain would also give priority to the issue of global warming.
"It is the view of this government that all industrialised nations -- from the smallest to the largest -- must accept their responsibilities and each must bear its share of the burden in reducing greenhouse gas emissions," he said.
In February 2004 British Prime Minister Tony Blair established a "Commission for Africa" as the centrepiece of his aim to make development in Africa a key objective in 2005.
The commission brings together 17 international dignitaries, nine of them African, ranging from Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to Irish pop star-turned-charity-organiser Bob Geldof, as well as Blair himself.
G8 leaders of the world's top industrialised nations are to convene at a resort in Scotland on July 6-8 next year.
The G8 comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia -- which will become a full member in 2006 -- and the United States.
Britain will also assume the six-month presidency of the 25-member EU in the second half of 2005.
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