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G7 Fails to Reach Deal on Debt Relief By Sumeet Desai WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Group of Seven economic powers on Saturday failed once again to agree on how to free Africa from debt and poverty. Aid agencies had wanted the rich countries to make good on their pledge to help rid the world's poorest countries of their crippling debt but ministers once again could not decide on the best way to pay for this. Their final statement after a Saturday meeting went no further than thanking the International Monetary Fund for a study on how its gold reserves could...

LONDON (Reuters) - The Group of Seven wealthy nations on Saturday pledged to help rid the world's poorest countries of their crippling debt, launching a program that fell short of the immediate action demanded by Africa. British finance minister Gordon Brown, hosting G7 talks in London this weekend, failed to secure U.S. backing for his proposals to stump up an extra $50 billion a year for poor countries and to completely write off their debts. A compromise deal pledged only that the G7 would look at cancelling up to 100 percent of the debts owed to international institutions by the...

LONDON (Reuters) - The Group of Seven appeared to have achieved a compromise on aid to the Third World on Saturday, proposing "up to" 100 percent multilateral debt relief to poor nations, G7 sources told Reuters. British finance minister Gordon Brown had sought a complete debt write off for the world's poorest nations, but faced resistance from the United States. Washington had objected to his proposal to use IMF gold reserves to fund the debt write off and also to create a new financing mechanism that would double aid. "The G7 has raised the prospect of relief of up to...

BERLIN (Reuters) - The United States, Germany and other G7 nations agreed on Saturday to write off up to 80 percent of Iraq's $120 billion foreign debt in a move that could pave the way for a wider international accord, officials said. The breakthrough came in talks between German Finance Minister Hans Eichel and U.S Treasury Secretary John Snow on the margins of a meeting of finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the G20 group of rich and developing nations. Officials from the Paris Club of creditor nations, meeting in Paris, have struggled for months to agree terms for...

May 26, 2004 Japan makes first al-Qaeda arrests in dawn raids FROM RICHARD LLOYD PARRY IN TOKYO Japan made its first move against radical Islamic suspects today, when police raided ten sites and arrested five foreigners suspected of plotting to set up an al-Qaeda cell. The five men - three Bangladeshis, one Indian and one citizen of Mali - were arrested for alleged forgery and breaking immigration laws. But in briefings to Japanese journalists, detectives made it clear that they will be questioned as the country's first suspected Islamic terrorists. Apart from the Red Army Faction, a defunct group of...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Group of Seven top economic powers are set this weekend to call on oil-producing nations to lower sky-high energy prices by pumping more crude. G7 finance officials meeting in New York are worried record oil prices -- which earlier this month topped $40 a barrel for the first time -- will dent the rosiest economic outlook in years by hitting business and consumers and stoking inflation. "The (G7) statement will invite OPEC (News - Websites) countries to increase their oil production and will contain an appreciation of Saudi Arabia's position on increasing its production," a...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Finance officials from the Group of Seven economic powers, meeting in New York on Saturday and on Sunday, are set to call on oil-producing nations to increase output in an effort to curb lofty energy prices. Although members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries at an Amsterdam gathering on Saturday deferred any decision on upping production for another two weeks, Saudi Arabia and others signaled they would back output hikes. A statement following the OPEC (news - web sites) meeting expressed "deep concern" about oil prices and said the cartel wanted to cut fuel costs...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Finance chiefs from the world's rich nations agreed on Saturday the global economic outlook had brightened significantly but the threat of further oil price rises was one of the few clouds on the horizon. Government ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven economic powers stopped short of recommending action on energy costs, in part because of differences on how severe an impact oil price rises would have on their economies. "Prospects are favorable and although risks remain, such as energy prices, overall the balance of risks to the outlook has improved," G7 officials said in...

It's not the currency stupid, it's integration! Posted: February 11, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern By Joan Veon© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com It should be noted that Slick Willie has nothing over Treasury Secretary John Snow – who will snow you at every turn. The closing press briefing of the G7 finance ministers and central bankers on Saturday was a sterling example of arrogance and unbridled power in the hands of the globalists. What was on the mind of most reporters was the value of the dollar in world currency markets. Snow refused to comment on the way the dollar should go or if there was...

Who are the G7 finance ministers? Posted: February 10, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern By Joan Veon© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com BOCA RATON, Fla. – To most people the G7 finance ministers are just a bunch of guys who get together throughout the year and talk over the economy, but it is not just the U.S. economy – it is the global economy. In order to understand their position of power, we must go back to August 1971 when President Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard. The Group of Seven first met in 1973, two years after Nixon severed the last attachment the dollar...

<p>Finance ministers of the G-7 who met in Boca Raton at the weekend at least didn't make the same mistake as their forebears did in 1987, when their Louvre Accord efforts to rig the foreign-exchange markets led to the October U.S. stock market crash. But they publicly (in their communique) worried about the same old thing, volatility in currency swings. Specifically, they were concerned about the downward slide of the U.S. dollar, which has lost one-third of its value relative to the euro in the last two years.</p>

G-7 meeting: Excerpts from the joint statement 10:35pm ET 02/07/04 The mix of words is seen giving the three major economic blocs, the United States, the European Union and Japan, want each wanted heading into the weekend meetings. Support for the statement was unanimous, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said, "all of us are happy with it."The ministers' view may leave financial markets confused, said analysts. Most expect the bruised U.S. dollar to rise Monday, but the greenback may then resume its decline. The challenge of bringing U.S. trade and budget deficits into balance will preoccupy investors once again, said...

The finance ministers from seven of the leading industrial nations have reached an accord at their summit meeting at Boca Raton in Florida. It is understood that the US accepts that the dollar should not get much weaker against the yen and the euro. The Americans also want the Chinese currency to be able to move more freely according to the market's dictates. The call was made in a statement at the end of the two-day meeting in a luxury resort on Florida's Atlantic coast. The final statement was broad: the global economic recovery has strengthened significantly, it says....

Insight on the News - Politics Issue: 09/30/03 Washington DiaryStill Looking for Even Trade By Jennifer G. Hickey If only the United States were a little bit more accommodating in negotiations with European allies. If only the administration of President George W. Bush were less unilateralist, more internationalist, all would be well in the world. Or so the Democratic candidates for president have claimed in recent debates and on the campaign trail. Not only do these claims ignore the more than 80 nations that joined the United States by various means to help dethrone Saddam Hussein, they also overlook the...

Elite power brokers' secret talks By Emma Jane Kirby BBC correspondent in Paris The world's financial and political elite are to hold a closed meeting in France on Thursday where delegates are expected to be focusing their attention on post war Iraq. The Bilderberg meeting will be held in Versailles just before the start of the Group of Seven meeting of finance ministers in nearby Paris. Bilderberg, which was founded in the 1950s by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, is said to steer international policy from behind closed doors. Its critics say that it is a capitalist organisation which...

TEXT-G7 communique after finance ministers meeting Sat April 12, 2003 02:13 PM ET WASHINGTON, April 12 (Reuters) - Below is the statement of the Group of Seven finance ministers and central bankers, who met here on Saturday. We met today at a time in which the world economy faces many challenges. In this light, we reaffirm our commitment to multilateral cooperation. Growth in most of our economies has been subdued, though uncertainties have diminished. A strong and lasting recovery is essential for our own countries and for the world. To this end, we each commit to pursue sound macroeconomic policies...

<p>As President Bush declared that Saddam Hussein's regime is "passing into history," seven of the world's richest nations announced an agreement yesterday to support a new U.N. Security Council resolution to help finance the rebuilding of Iraq.</p> <p>The nations also promised to begin talks on reducing Iraq's massive foreign debt burden, a major victory for the Bush administration, which is pressing Russia, France and Germany — all staunch war opponents — to forgive part of the debt, estimated at $60 billion to $100 billion.</p>

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Finance leaders from the world's richest nations said on Saturday that uncertainties looming over the global economy were lifting, and agreed on the need for a large United Nations role in rebuilding Iraq.The United States, which hosted a meeting here of the Group of Seven finance ministers and central bank governors, appeared to have made a key concession to European countries on the Iraq issue, joining their calls for a fresh United Nations Security Council resolution on the war-torn country.``We recognize the need for a multilateral effort to help Iraq. We support a further U.N. Security Council...

By Mark Egan and Glenn Somerville WASHINGTON, April 11 (Reuters) - Public quibbling among Group of Seven partners ahead of the war with Iraq has begun anew as talks turn to reconstruction, threatening to hamper efforts to prop up a feeble global recovery. As G7 finance ministers -- from the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, Canada, France and Italy -- gathered in Washington for a weekend meeting, there were signs of fresh tension over how to rebuild Iraq and who should take the lead. Rich nations squabbled for months at the United Nations over how best to tackle weapons...

China BEIJING - The accountancy of foreign policy is always extremely difficult. Choices that might seem wrong in the short run may prove right in the long run, and vice versa. In his first news conference on Tuesday, China's new Premier Wen Jiabao insisted on a political solution for the crisis in Iraq, and the same afternoon Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan underscored that China was working and hoping for a solution within the framework of the United Nations. In fact China's position since the beginning has been consistent: it wanted to achieve a solution, no matter which one, by...