- Merlino says family punished for others' mob ties
- Camden County judge seriously hurt in bike accident
- Racism underlies rage at Obama presidency
- Dogs try out for role in "Oliver!"
- 5 area schools win U.S. Blue Ribbon honors
- New Pa. public-records law: lots of requests ... & lawsuits
- Ronnie Polaneczky: Pen to paper: Will Madoff make him rich?
- Drawn by Obama's proximity, activists spar on health care, abortion & other issues
- Ailing woman, 78, spared eviction after PHA's reasoning collapses
- ACORN shows 'pimp' and 'pro' the door here
- Obama in Philly, fundraising for Sen. Arlen Specter
- Blockbuster may shutter 960 stores
- SnapGlow.TV: Modern Gems Galore!
RELATED STORIES
Summit pledges $20B in food aid
Wealthy nations extend a hand. "Too many people are still struggling," Obama said.
L'AQUILA, Italy - Leaders of the world's major economies yesterday pledged $20 billion for food and agricultural aid to the world's most impoverished countries, and President Obama ended the G-8 summit by saying that despite steps forward on economic, environmental, and security issues, much work remained to be done.
"While our markets are improving and we appear to have averted global collapse, we know that too many people are still struggling," Obama said, speaking to reporters after a three-day meeting of the Group of Eight highly industrialized nations.
Obama called the agreement on food aid among the most significant achievements at the summit. He also singled out actions to combat nuclear proliferation and global warming; efforts to stabilize the global economy; and a joint statement condemning Iran's crackdown on protests after its disputed presidential election last month.
"We remain seriously concerned about the appalling events surrounding the presidential election," Obama said. "And we're deeply troubled by the proliferation risks Iran's nuclear program poses to the world."
He said the leaders would "take stock of Iran's progress" this September at the Group of 20 meeting in Pittsburgh, another global summit that will follow a U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York.
The expanded global commitment on food security - up from an earlier pledge of $15 billion in aid - comes as the worldwide recession and high commodity prices have pushed food prices 40 percent above historical levels.
That combination has left 100 million people around the world at risk of tumbling into abject poverty, according to the White House.
During the discussions on hunger, Obama personalized the appeal for more aid, pointing out to other leaders in the room that he still has relatives in Kenya who, while not going hungry themselves, live in villages mired in deep poverty.
"You could have heard a pin drop," a U.S. official who briefed reporters said.
Obama said at the news conference that he talked about his father's journey from Kenya to the United States in search of better educational opportunities.
At that time, he said, the per capita incomes in Kenya and South Korea were comparable. Since then, South Korea has become a highly industrialized and prosperous country, Obama said, while Kenya and many other developing nations still struggle.
"The question I asked at the meeting was, 'Why is that?' " Obama said.
The United States expanded on its earlier commitment to double agricultural development assistance to more than $1 billion in 2010 - increasing the pledged amount to $3.5 billion by 2012.
The leaders made modest progress toward a pact to battle climate change, by setting long-term targets for reducing carbon emissions while helping poor nations reduce their carbon outputs.
They also agreed that it was too early to back away from economic-stimulus actions taken by individual countries earlier this year during the height of the world financial crisis, actions that Obama said kept the world from a global financial collapse.
"Full recovery is still a ways off," Obama said.
Kanayo Nwanze, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, applauded the commitment to fight hunger through agricultural development.
"In the past, food security was a mere bullet point at the G-8," he said.
For all the upbeat talk, the summit showed the G-8 forum - created in 1975 - has become obsolete, run by Cold War-vintage powers while relegating the world's fastest-growing large economies, China, India, and Brazil, to observer status.
Excluding emerging world powers is "wrongheaded," Obama told reporters.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy called G-8 expansion all but a done deal. But finding the right formula for an overhaul will prove tricky. "Everybody wants the smallest possible group ... that includes them," Obama said.
Sarkozy said he expected the G-8 to expand to 14 nations - adding Brazil, China, India, Mexico, South Africa, and an Arab country - when France holds the rotating presidency in 2011.
This article includes information from the Associated Press.
