African leaders petition G20 for more funds

By Adrian Croft and Carolyn Cohn

LONDON (Reuters) - African countries petitioned the G20 on Monday for an increase in funding and easier access to international financing to help them through the global financial crisis.

More than 20 African leaders and ministers met British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to present a joint African position before the G20 summit of old and emerging economic powers that Brown will host on April 2.

Brown will transmit their message to the G20, which will examine how to restart the stalled world economy and reform global financial institutions.

South Africa is the only African member of the G20, although Brown has invited umbrella groups the New Partnership for Africa's Development and the African Union Commission to the summit.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said the critical issues African countries wanted addressed were additional funds and ease of access to those funds.

Asked how much additional money African nations wanted, Meles said the figures "being bandied around" ranged as high as $50 billion.

"There are bound to be various means of funding and various means of disbursing those funds. We have discussed those with the prime minister (Brown) and I believe we have agreed on the fundamentals of all of this," he told a news conference.

He said the World Bank and International Monetary Fund had millions of dollars that could be released to African countries now "by simply modifying the disbursement mechanisms".