Clinton Tells Africa Officials of Debt Relief Plan

President Clinton urged the world’s richest nations Tuesday to relieve the debt burden of Africa’s poorest countries.

Addressing a three-day conference at the State Department of African government officials from 46 nations, Clinton said he will propose a plan to forgive $70 billion in debt held by developing nations in return for economic reforms when he goes to an annual meeting of the world’s leading industrial nations in June.

“Our goal is to ensure that no country committed to fundamental reform is left with a debt burden that keeps it from meeting its people’s basic human needs,” Clinton said. “The more debtor nations take responsibility for pursuing sound economic policies, the more creditor nations must be willing to provide debt relief.”

The proposal was welcomed by the African officials, who have long said the debt makes it harder for them to build upon economic development that comes their way.

The president spoke as his wife--who paved the way for his visit to Africa last year--prepared to make her third trip to the continent. Hillary Rodham Clinton is to leave Saturday for an 11-day tour of Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia.

To finance the debt relief package, Clinton suggested selling gold reserves held by the International Monetary Fund, an idea the U.S. has not embraced before now.

Britain, Germany and France have proposed recently that 103 million ounces of IMF gold be tapped to provide funds for a debt relief initiative by the IMF and World Bank.

The gold reserve has a current market value of $34 billion.