World leaders have backed plans for a new initiative to target poverty and disease in Africa.

The G8 group of nations agreed to an additional $6 billion dollars of aid and announced plans for a new initiative to assist the region.

Key player and architect of the new deal, Tony Blair has billed the plan as "a signal of hope'' for Africa.

The British prime minister regards the agreement as an innovative from of development allowing "Africa to help itself".

"This isn't old fashioned aid, it's a genuine partnership for the renewal of Africa. This document will send out a signal of hope to Africa," he said.

But aid agencies and pressure groups are warning the politicians that they must back words with action.

They have slammed the world's richest nations for failing to deliver an adequate package of aid and assistance.

Oxfam dismissed the G8's Africa announcement as "recycled peanuts".

"It's peanuts and recycled peanuts at that," said a spokesman.

Bob Geldof, the pop musician who has raised millions of pounds for Africa, said the West was letting the developing world down.

"Everyone said this was going to be the year for Africa, but in the last year you've seen a catastrophic failure to deal with the rhetoric," he said.

"It looked fairly promising up to about a month ago, but in the last two weeks it's all unravelled into this sort of meaningless conference."

Christian Aid accused the world leaders of recycling old aid and leaving Africa behind.

"It's money that was already pledged in Mexico, so it's not new, it's over five years and it will only bring aid to Africa back to 1990 levels."

And on his retrun trip to the UK, Blair conceded that more had to be done.

"It is a new partnership, but there is much more now that needs to be done," he said.

"We have to commit ourselves to free trade for the future. We want to move towards freer and more open trade."

At the summit on Wednesday, world leaders gave their backing to a package of transport security measures designed to prevent a repeat of the September 11 attacks and backed plans to increase African aid by $1 billion.

On Thursday the leaders gave their approval to a new $6 billion a year African action plan.

The New Partnership for Africa's Development is being seen as vital if the continent is to halt its slide into the abyss of mass poverty and disease.

Several African leaders attended the G8 summit to press their case for a renewed effort to raise the game in Africa.

Blair has been a key player in pressing the world's richest nations to give a long-term commitment to helping Africa overcome famine, disease and drought.

He earlier secured the backing of his colleagues to give a further $1 billion to a special debt relief fund for heavily indebted African states.

"I think we have made a bit of progress and the agreement to put an extra up to one billion dollars into relieving the debt of the poorest countries is a significant step forward," said Blair.

"When they are desperate to spend money on their people they are spending money on servicing debt."

He also used a working dinner on the first day of the summit to call for the G8 to do more to tackle the Afghan drugs trade.

Blair pressed his international colleagues to lobby the new Afghanistan government to cut opium production.

He told G8 leaders that Afghanistan accounts for 70 per cent of the world's heroin - and over 90 per cent of the drug circulating in the UK.