Bush warns poverty can breed terror as he proposes more aid

Associated Press WriterMONTERREY, Mexico (AP) -- President Bush urged world leaders to demand political reform from poor countries in exchange for increased aid and warned Friday that unchecked poverty can foster terrorism.

"We fight poverty because hope is an answer to terror," Bush said in a speech before representatives from 171 nations taking part in the U.N. International Conference on Financing for Development.

The president outlined his proposal to link U.S. foreign aid dollars to a country's ability to rid itself of corruption and walk a straight, narrow path to economic reform. He said he will ask Congress to put an extra $10 billion into core U.S. development assistance by 2006, and make money available to qualifying countries over the next year.

French President Jacques Chirac likened the campaign against poverty to the war against terrorism. "What can be done against terrorism can surely be done against poverty, in the name of a more human, manageable globalization," he said.

But, he said, poor nations are coming to understand that they can no longer expect development money without strings.

Bush directed his secretaries of State and Treasury to develop eligibility criteria, and promised those criteria would be applied "fairly and rigorously." He called for dispensing more aid in the form of grants rather than loans, arguing that a colossal debt burden keeps poor countries from healing their sick and educating their children.

Bush also advocated opening markets and lowering trade barriers, and expressed hope that a new global free-trade agreement would be reached as a means of alleviating poverty.

He noted that since the African Growth and Opportunity Act became law in May 2000, exports from African countries to the United States increased by 1,000 percent, generated thousands of jobs and leveraged nearly $1 billion in investment.

"When nations close their markets and opportunity is hoarded by a privileged few, no amount -- no amount -- of development aid is ever enough," Bush said. "When trade advances, there's no question but the fact that poverty retreats."

The president, on the second day of a four-day trip to Mexico, El Salvador and Peru, spoke in advance of a closed retreat of world leaders at an art museum. Later, Bush was meeting with Mexican President Vicente Fox to talk about a U.S. effort to foster private business investment in Mexico's poorest areas.

Bush started the day at a breakfast meeting with French President Jacques Chirac, discussing the latest wave of terrorist attacks that have shadowed the poverty-fighting work here. As they assembled, another suicide bomber struck in Israel, but neither president took questions from reporters as they stood before photographers, with a row of flags at their backs.

Bush said progress in the fight against poverty is within reach, but the battle will not be won unless wealthy nations insist upon an aid standard based on political liberty, respect for human rights and adherence to the rule of law.

"Pouring money into a failed status quo does little to help the poor. ... We must accept a higher, more difficult, more promising call," Bush said. "Liberty and law and opportunity are the conditions for development, and they are the common hopes of mankind."

While he did not refer directly to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Bush said recent experiences with terrorism demonstrate the need to rich nations to get serious about eliminating poverty.

"History has called us to a titanic struggle, whose stakes could not be higher because we're fighting for freedom itself," Bush said. "We will challenge the poverty and hopelessness and lack of education and failed governments that too often allow conditions that terrorists can seize and try to turn to their advantage."

Chirac reminded their international audience of Europe's split with Bush over his rejection of an international treaty to fight global warming by mandating cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. The French president warned of "climate warming that threatens the conditions of life itself and for our children."

"The Kyoto Protocol is the only credible means to reduce them, and I call upon all countries to ratify it," Chirac said.

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U.N. International Conference on Financing for Development site: http://www.un.org/esa/ffd