Taking Vows, Making Vows

At a meeting in Berlin on Wednesday, a group of highly ranked Catholic clergymen said they were "disappointed" by the "lack of progress" made by G8 countries towards the development aid targets they set at a summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2005.

While debt relief goals set at Gleneagles have largely been met, most G8 countries are well behind on the aid targets, the bishops said.

They called on the G8 countries attending a summit in the northern Germany town of Heiligendamm on June 6-8 to commit to reaching the target of 0.7 percent of gross national income by 2015, one of the targets set by the UN's Millennium Development Goals.

The debts of the world's poorest countries should be cancelled without conditions, they said, echoing a recent call from Pope Benedict XVI.

Call to 'globalize charity'

The bishops urged G8 nations to promote good governance in developing countries by systematically involving them in discussions on policy and loans.

"We want to make political leaders realize that there has been a globalization of economic growth and therefore that there needs to be a globalization of charity and responsibility," said Laurent Monsengwo, the archbishop of Kisangani, one of the dioceses in the Democratic Republic of Congo seeking aid.

"We see wealth and material fortune at the same time as abject poverty," the German bishops said in a joint statement. "While the number of millionaires and billionaires is growing fast in some parts of the world, the numbers of the extreme poor remain stubbornly high."

Pop icon Geldof makes own plea

Adding to the chorus of voices making appeals to G8 leaders to live up to their aid commitments was Irish musician Bob Geldof, who will be attending the G8 summit.

"If anything works, then it's development aid," said the 55-year-old rocker, speaking at an Intellectual Live 8 conference in Berlin on Wednesday.

Geldof took part in the meeting with politicians, VIPs and academics to talk about the Africa agenda of the G8 summit.

Enough money, not enough thought

The gathering put forward a list of proposals for German Chancellor Angela Merkel to present to fellow G8 leaders at the Heiligendamm summit.

Geldof is also demanding that Germany, whose economy is currently improving, take the lead in making good the EU pledge to commit 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product to development aid.

"There's no lack of money, there's a lack of thought," said the singer, who launched the famed Live Aid concerts in the 80s.

Merkel has promised that aid to Africa and other developing nations will be one of the major themes of the G8 summit, which will also be attended by the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.