960412

Africa development

world's top

challenge: UN

LISBON: Africa's urgent need to develop is the world's top problem, the U.N. General Assembly president said on Thursday.

"Africa is the biggest problem facing the international community," Diogo Freitas do Amaral told a conference in Lisbon.

"The African continent is the most difficult to develop," he added.

He said the world community must share a greater part of its resources to help Africa develop and noted that sub-Saharan Africa lacked an effective international trade area.

He said many African states exceeded by a large margin World Bank targets for acceptable levels of export income that should be used to service external debt.

"The responsibility of the international community towards Africa is very great," he said.

"Portugal must face up to its responsibilities towards the Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa," he added.

Freitas do Amaral, a former candidate for the Portuguese presidency, said he believed Portugal should share part of its increasing wealth from economic growth in coming years to help Africa develop.

Portugal plans to launch a Portuguese-speaking commonwealth of former colonies in June.-Reuter