Blair ends four-nation visit

British Prime Minister Tony Blair ended his four-nation West Africa tour on Sunday in Senegal, saying the West should help Africa achieve greater stability and economic advancement, news organisations reported. This is the same message he took to Ghana, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, where he started his tour on Thursday. "The theme of my visit this week is partnership - the necessity and the possibility of a greatly strengthened partnership between reforming African governments and the world's richer countries," he told the Ghanaian parliament on Friday, the Foreign Office reported. This partnership, he said, demanded that both sides carry out policy reforms designed to reduce poverty in Africa and spur the continent's development. The modern development concept, he said, was one that went beyond the transfer of resources and embraced issues of trade and investment, conflict, governance and the environment. Blair told Ghana's parliament that developed countries retained "significant barriers" to trade, particularly in agriculture. He said access to EU agricultural markets was still restricted by Europe's common agricultural policy, including tariffs and seasonal levies. Although Europe's market was open to tropical African commodities such as coffee and cocoa, he added, there were tariffs of up to 300 percent on some products. In Nigeria, Blair told parliamentarians that Africans were "right to say that we should practice what we preach" and cut these trade barriers. His other priority is to help end conflicts in Africa. He said the developed countries, particularly the Group of Eight (G-8) industrialised nations, needed to do more in this regard. On Thursday, the British Prime Minister announced the establishment of a special envoy for Sudan. "We need similar energy and commitment to drive forward on the Lusaka peace process in the DRC. And we need to provide practical support for Africans to tackle conflict on the continent," he told Ghanaian parliamentarians.