Russia has joined a world initiative to write off the debt of the world's poorest countries on a bilateral basis - Kudrin
MOSCOW Feb 9 RIA NOVOSTI, RUSSIA - The finance ministers of the G8 countries are planning to discuss writing off the debt of the world's poorest countries when they meet in Moscow on February 10-11, Finance Minster Alexei Kudrin said at a Thursday press conference.

Russia has joined a world initiative to write off the debt of the world's poorest countries on a bilateral basis, he said. The 2006 budget envisions writing off about $688 million in the debt of sixteen African countries.

Developing forms of support for such countries will be a subject of discussion at the G8 meeting, Kudrin said. A decision was made last year to write off $37 billion in debt of the world's poorest countries to international financial organizations, he said. The current task is to replenish the capital of these organizations.

The finance ministers will also discuss the fight against infectious diseases, including the monitoring network for such diseases, and developing vaccines and new medicine, Kudrin said. The meeting will also discuss the bird flu epidemic and preventing the spread of pneumonia.

The financing of terrorism and the management of public finances will also be a matter for discussion at the meeting. This will be the first meeting where the topic of managing public financing will be discussed and this will continue in the summer, Kudrin said.

The finance ministers will issue a joint statement after the meeting is over, Kudrin said.

He added that, within the frames of G8 finance ministers’ meeting in February, Russia would put forward its own proposals on the procedure and terms of capitalization of the international finance organizations.