While they may be talking debt relief, the odds of a deal are put at only 60 per cent by one advocacy group.

Some excerpts from the BBC story:

... German Finance Minister Hans Eichel said he thought there would be no deal until Gleneagles (the G8 summit next month).

"We will not come to an agreement here," he said. "What I see as very important is that we stick with the case-by-case approach on debt relief for every single country."

The finance ministers spent Friday discussing the outline plan from the UK and US to write off the debts of 18 highly-indebted countries in Africa, according to White House spokesman Scott McCellan. (Note: That should be McClellan. Very rare for the Beeb to botch a name, but it did so all the way through)  ...

Mr McClellan said it would "cancel 100% of the World Bank, African Development Bank and IMF debt" - suggesting the US may have dropped objections to including IMF debts.

Funding the plan remains controversial. The US has previously said any debt relief from the World Bank should come out of funds the organisation uses to lend to poor countries.

Mr McClellan said debt would only be cancelled only for countries that showed a commitment to "sound economic policies" and reducing corruption.

"Sound economic policies"? Hmm, whatever could Mr. McClellan mean? Might I suggest cutting taxes for the rich and cutting services for the poor to help deal with the resultant deficit? :) Anyway ...

Anti-poverty campaigners are concerned that only 27 poor countries have qualified for debt relief and would benefit from any initiative. They argue that 62 countries, including large debtors like Nigeria and Indonesia, should be included.

"There is only a 60% chance of a deal on debt relief, it is no means certain, and on aid we don't expect very much at all which is very disappointing," said Romilly Greenhill, policy officer at ActionAid.

Germany, France and Japan have proposed that the rich countries shoulder the costs of servicing poor nations debt, rather than write off the debts entirely.

However, Canada, which had earlier backed these plans, now appears to moving to support a complete write-off.

Development lobbyists reportedly want debt relief, total aid doubled to $100 billion US per year and the world trading system reformed.

Here's some other stuff:

BBC: Q-and-A on African debt relief

NYT: Rich nations near deal on African debt relief