BOB GELDOF will attend the United Nations summit in New York this week in a bid to stop the G8’s aid-for-Africa programme unravelling.

The Dublin singer will also be fighting to safeguard his reputation as the voice of the continent’s poor, amid growing criticism of his role at the G8 summit in July.

Some activists say he has become too close to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and that he misrepresented how much aid was being promised in giving the G8 “10 out of 10” in the aftermath of the Gleneagles summit. Analysis of the $25 billion (€20 billion) a year announced in July shows that only $8 billion of it is new money. The rest had already been announced by the G8 governments.

Charities working in Africa, many of which are now critical of Geldof, accuse the G8 of double accounting and massaging the figures, saying much of the total “aid” package is made up of a supposedly separate debt cancellation programme announced at Gleneagles.

According to the charities, only an additional $1 billion will be available next year.

The UN summit in New York was due to discuss aid and the implementation of its “millennium development goals” to end poverty. But America has submitted 750 amendments, which effectively seek to bury mention of the targets.

Geldof has been invited to the sessions and will have lunch with Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general. He is not allowed to speak in the forum but is expected to unleash his anger outside if there are attempts to reduce the amount of aid.

But the UN is only the first hurdle for Geldof. Leaked documents from the World Bank suggest its development committee meeting later this month may want to place more conditions on African countries before they are approved for debt cancellation. The documents say the total cost of debt cancellation could be lowered by $10 billion if “fully disbursed credits (money already provided and spent) only are included in the G8 proposal”.

In addition, a group of European countries, including Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Norway, which are not part of G8 but control 17% of the votes at the International Monetary Fund, have tabled proposals questioning whether debt should be cancelled at a single stroke. They argue that African leaders could then go back on their promises to be more democratic and to use aid to help the poor.

Blair persuaded the G8 leaders to put their commitment in their own handwriting at Gleneagles, but some now seem less keen. George W Bush, distracted by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, has said there is no new money for Africa.

Japan has decided that cancelling debts from oil-rich Iraq will count towards its debt-relief programme to poor countries. Two other G8 countries, Germany and Italy, have said they might not be able to reach their commitments unless their economies grow. The three countries signed up at Gleneagles for 40 years but are now saying they can only commit for three.

Peter Hardstaff, the head of policy at the World Development Movement, said: “We were conned at G8 . . . it is not looking as good as (Geldof) painted it.”

Many activists were upset by the way Geldof rounded on a South African campaigner and called him a “disgrace” for daring to question the deal at a Gleneagles press conference.

There was also anger that Geldof’s Live 8 events, put together in a few days and watched by up to 2 billion people across the globe, stole the thunder of a Make Poverty History march by 225,000 people that had been planned for months. John Hilary, the director of policy and campaigns at War on Want, said: “At the end (Geldof) was acting as a spin doctor for Blair and the other G8 leaders.”

Not everyone is as critical. Steve Tibbett, the head of policy at ActionAid said: “There is a definite fear that some of the gains and consensus that has built up is under threat.

“But Bob Geldof’s impact on campaigning has been significant for a number of years. He brings a lot of attention and we would miss that.”

Geldof said last week: “The UN summit is going to be difficult because of unforeseen circumstances. The hurricane has profoundly affected American policy.

“We have got to bring the nay-sayers from the western world on side and put backbone into the leaders who may be backsliding already.”

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