Brown: US can't block Africa aid

Gordon Brown today made clear US objections would not stop Britain pressing on with ambitious plans to help Africa.

The Chancellor and Tony Blair are determined to use Britain's G8 presidency to implement a multinational plan to lift Africa out of poverty.

Mr Brown made clear today the objections of a sceptical US administration would not make him scale back his plans for debt relief and ?28billion of aid for the povertystricken continent.

In Edinburgh he said: "When many have suggested to me it is a demand too large, a programme too ambitious, my reply is that it is not a time for timidity nor a time to fear reaching too high." Next week Mr Blair flies to Washington in a final bid to sway George Bush to back the African agenda before July's Gleneagles summit.