Crowd of 200,000 in Scotland urges poverty action

A tide of some 200,000 people dressed in white streamed through Edinburgh yesterday to demand that leaders of rich nations agree measures to attack global poverty at a summit near the Scottish capital next week.

As part of a day of pressure on the Group of Eight nations, including the Live 8 rock concerts, the marchers urged rich states to double aid to poor countries, especially in Africa. They also called for debt relief and trade reform.

The marchers, wearing the colour of the Make Poverty History movement - a coalition of charities, churches and other groups - flooded the streets of the historic city for five hours to form a human version of the campaign's white band symbol.

Police and organisers estimated the number of demonstrators at 200,000, making the march one of the biggest in Scottish history.

Men, women and children from all corners of Europe flocked to Edinburgh to demand that the heads of the world's richest nations end the triple scourge of debt, disease and poverty.

Under blue skies and a blazing sun, the event was opened by Cardinal Keith O'Brien, leader of Scotland's Roman Catholics, with a blessing from the Pope and a call on the G8 to take heed.

The G8 leaders meet from next Wednesday at the luxury Gleneagles hotel and golf resort, 65 kilometres northwest of Edinburgh, for a summit chaired by British Prime Minister Tony Blair who has put Africa at the top of the agenda. Marchers said the G8 leaders had a unique chance to stop 30,000 children dying every day because of extreme poverty.