Anti-poverty campaigners expressed relief yesterday after Britain, Japan and Germany successfully fought off an attempt by France and Italy to roll back promises of increased aid to Africa.

After two days of haggling, the G8 reaffirmed the commitments brokered by Tony Blair at the Gleneagles summit in 2005 to increase overseas aid to $50 billion (£25 billion) a year, half of which will go to Africa. Campaigners denounced the G8's failure to abandon biofuels, which are blamed for the recent surge in world food prices.

The French and Italians had sought to remove the percentages from the official communiqué, to the alarm of Gordon Brown. International NGOs campaigned intensively to keep the figures in and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, and Yasuo Fukuda, the Japanese Prime Minister, gave their support to Mr Brown.

Mr Brown said that the leaders had agreed not only to reaffirm the Gleneagles commitments but also to spell out how some of the money would be spent. He pointed to decisions to supply 100 million mosquito nets and to spend £10 billion on promoting agriculture, £1 billion on providing school places and £60 billion on combating infectious diseases. He added that Britain would be contributing £20 million to the malaria initiative and additional sums to build healthcare systems.

“The plain fact remains that there was a political contract in 2005 of deep seriousness. This summit has recognised that,” Bob Geldof, the musician and aid advocate, said. “The numbers are so small that the eight wealthiest economies on the planet can easily meet their commitments if they choose to. How else are banks bailed out or military expeditions funded? It's not the money, it's the will.”

The G8 promised to look into biofuels from inedible materials, such as wood chips but did not agree to remove subsidies paid to farmers in the US and EU.

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