Time Bush got Brown's message, Guardian, 11 February 2002

Gordon Brown bangs on about international aid like a man possessed - by Clare Short, perhaps. Speeches in New York and Washington before Christmas. More coverage last week. And a simple proposition: aid should double, adding $50bn (£35bn) a year to the total.

Quite right. Our government, like many others, has committed itself to the ambitious target of reducing poverty by half by 2015 and doubling aid is a necessary condition. The calculations were assembled by an independent panel for next month's UN conference in Monterrey, Mexico on financing for development: $20bn a year to 2015 to halve poverty and hunger; $9bn per annum to achieve universal primary education; $7bn to $10bn for HIV/Aids and so on................. (see link in title for full article)