The Group of Eight nations are planning at their leaders' summit next week to enhance coordination in strengthening health systems in Africa, such as supporting financing systems to ensure universal access to healthcare to fight contagious diseases, according to a draft of the summit's declaration obtained Thursday by Kyodo News. The G-8 nations also plan to reaffirm their commitment to support African countries toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals, including halving poverty by 2015, through expanding trade with Africa, fostering sustainable investment and helping strengthen African financial markets. On improving energy security in Africa, the draft says the G-8 leaders will ''give particular attention to energy efficiency and the use of domestic renewable energy sources. '' ''We will further promote responsible sustainable bio-energy production, generated from renewable biomass resources, with a view to contributing to climate protection without jeopardizing food security and the environment,'' the draft says. The document also calls on African nations to further efforts in attaining better financial governance and promoting peace and security in the region. Regarding healthcare, the draft declaration, titled ''Growth and Responsibility in Africa,'' says the G-8 countries ''will scale up their efforts to contributing towards the goal of universal access to comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention programs, treatment and care and support by 2010 for all Africans. '' It says each G-8 member will work with other donors and ''contribute to ensure that multi-year funding based on ambitious but realistic targets is made available to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. '' Meanwhile, Britain's proposal for support for greater flexibility in measures to enable greater access to generic drugs -- available at lower cost than patented drugs -- in developing countries, including technical assistance and capacity building programs, was opposed by the United States and wording of the provision has yet to be finalized. The G-8 leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States are set to gather for a three-day summit from Wednesday in the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm, Germany. Africa is a major topic on the agenda of this year's G-8 summit, along with the issue of climate change
