Benn in G8 plea to honour pledges

His call came amid warnings that the world's richer nations are not paying up on commitments made at the Gleneagles G8 summit nearly two years ago.

Mr Benn said: "The figures are disappointing, although we need to recognise that the total in 2005 was the largest ever and 2006 figures are still about £20 billion up on 2004. But countries have got to keep the promises they made and Britain has certainly done so and we will continue to encourage others to honour their promises."

But he also told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It's not just the level of aid that is given. It's not just a question that if we could write a big enough cheque then poverty would be overcome. Fundamentally it's about governance. Corruption is a problem in different places."

Chris Bain, director of aid agency Cafod, said promises on aid had been broken. "Figures released last week were very, very disappointing. Apart from Britain most countries have actually had a decrease in 2006 on the aid that they promised."

He added: "The one bright spark in this is that the British government have achieved their promises and they have increased their aid. But for the rest - for example the US decreasing by a fifth and Italy a tenth - we've got a long way to go before we really get the financing to achieve the millennium development goals."

They were speaking ahead of a meeting today between Chancellor Gordon Brown and former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to discuss progress on the G8 pledges.

They will be among several VIPs visiting the luxury Perthshire resort to outline how the influential group's pledges have fared since being announced in July 2005.

The eight leaders of the world's leading industrialised nations, including Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George Bush, pledged an annual increase in global aid to £25.3 billion by 2010. They also promised to wipe out debts for some of the poorest countries in the world, and to provide universal access to HIV medicines in Africa within five years.

Charities have warned that unless drastic action is taken by the G8 - made up of the US, UK, Italy, Japan, Canada, France, Russia, and Germany - several of the key pledges from 2005 will fail to be met.