Tsunami 'won't divert Africa aid'

UK aid to help the victims of the Asian tsunami disaster will not take much needed relief from Africa, Prime Minister Tony Blair has promised.

Mr Blair told the BBC's Breakfast with Frost show the money spent on the tsunami would not "invade" the money Britain wanted to spend on Africa. Questioned about the disaster, he said his faith in God had not been shaken. He added he would give new figures on the number of tsunami-related British deaths to the Commons on Monday. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Friday that about 440 Britons were either dead or missing in the disaster.

Mr Blair told Sunday's programme: "Since Jack Straw gave those figures a couple of days ago they haven't moved a great deal, which should give us some hope that we are beginning to reach the peak of the numbers. But we just can't be sure. "It is just an immensely difficult job to get absolutely accurate figures, all countries are struggling with this."

He said the £50 million originally allocated from the Department for International Development was now "well on the way" to being spent. But the exact allocation could not be clarified until the World Bank had completed its assessment of the needs of the countries affected. Within the next few weeks a clearer picture would emerge of the long-term costs of reconstruction, he added. But he pledged that Africa - which sees a "preventable" tsunami-size death toll every month from conflict, disease and poverty - would not be neglected. As Britain takes up its presidency of the G8 group of leading nations, Mr Blair said ministers had a big agenda for Africa. "For the first time we have a plan that won't just deal with aid and debt but will also deal on issues of governance within African countries and conflict resolution," he said. "A lot of the problems in Africa come from conflict, that again are preventable, but only with the right systems in place."
