For all the critics who were wondering where Bob was and why he wasn't saying anything:

Geldof fights to avoid G8 humiliation
Maurice Chittenden
BOB GELDOF is flying to the United Nations summit in New York this week in an attempt to stop the G8’s aid-for-Africa programme from collapsing.

There are fears that the world’s leaders are beginning to “backslide” on their commitment to pump an extra $25 billion (£13.6 billion) a year into Africa. Some are worried by the slow growth of their own countries’ economies while George W Bush has been distracted by the disaster in New Orleans.

Geldof will also be fighting to safeguard his reputation as the voice of the continent’s poor, amid growing criticism of his role at the G8 summit in July.

Some activists say he has become too close to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and that he misrepresented how much aid was being promised when he have the G8 “10 out of 10” at Gleneagles.

Only $8 billion of it is new money. The rest had already been announced by the G8 governments.

Charities that work in Africa, many of which are now critical of Geldof, accuse the G8 of double accounting and massaging the figures. Much of the total “aid” package is made up of a supposedly separate debt cancellation programme announced at Gleneagles.

According to the charities, only an additional $1 billion will be available next year.

The UN summit in New York was due to discuss aid and the implementation of “millennium development goals” to end poverty. However, America has submitted 750 amendments, which will effectively seek to bury mention of the targets.

Geldof has been invited to the sessions and will have lunch with Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general. He is not allowed to speak in the forum but is expected to unleash his anger outside if there are attempts to reduce the amount of aid on offer.

“The more he feels things he has praised have been undermined, the more angry he will be,” said Stephen Rand, co-chairman of the Jubilee Debt Campaign.

But the UN is only the first hurdle for Geldof. Leaked documents from the World Bank suggest its development committee meeting later this month may want to place more conditions on African countries before they are approved for debt cancellation.

The documents say the total cost of debt cancellation could be lowered by $10 billion if “fully disbursed credits [money already provided and spent] only are included in the G8 proposal”.

Blair persuaded all the G8 leaders to put their commitment in their own handwriting at Gleneagles but some now seem less keen.

Japan has decided that cancelling debts from oil-rich Iraq will count towards its debt relief programme. Two other G8 countries, Germany and Italy, have said they might not be able to reach their commitments.

Peter Hardstaff, head of policy at the World Development Movement, said: “We were conned at G8. There was a whole load of spin . . . it is not looking as good as [Geldof] painted it.” John Hilary, director of campaigns at War on Want, said: “At the end [Geldof] was acting as a spin doctor for Blair and the other G8 leaders.”

Geldof said last week: “The UN summit is going to be difficult because of unforeseen circumstances. The hurricane has profoundly affected American policy.

“We have got to bring the nay-sayers from the western world on side and put backbone into the leaders who may be backsliding already.”