ENDING poverty in Africa will not be achieved during this week's G8 summit but is the work of a lifetime, Chancellor Gordon Brown has cautioned.

However, Mr Brown said he did not believe people's expectations of the summit at Gleneagles were unrealistic.

He stressed that agreement on two key areas - 100% debt relief and a doubling of aid for the poorest countries - had already been reached.

Mr Brown hailed the Live 8 spectacular as an example of Britain at its best and proof that "people can have power if they make their views felt".

Speaking as the world's most powerful leaders gather in Scotland to hammer out a deal on Africa, he said: "It is not a week's work at the G8 that is going to determine the long-term future of Africa or the developing countries.

Justice

"It is a lifetime's work where we empower the people of Africa and the developing countries to make decisions for themselves," he told BBC News 24's Sunday programme.

Comparing Saturday's concert to the 1985 Live Aid concert to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia, he said: "In 1984 it was about charity, raising money for charity, when it was Live Aid.

"Today it's about a campaign for justice and empowerment for millions of people round the world and to work in partnership with them so they have the healthcare, the education and the ability to trade and have economic development that is absolutely essential for the future."

Speaking from his constituency home in Fife, Mr Brown rejected suggestions that Live 8 and the weekend's protest marches had raised expectations for the summit too high.

"No I don't think so because we have already seen an agreement in the last few days for 100% debt relief for the poorest countries. So what people have been acting about over the last few months in this great campaign which has captured the imagination of the nation, the first element of it - 100% debt relief for the poorest countries - is already agreed."

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