ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, July 14 (Xinhua) -- As the Group-8 (G8) summit is approaching, a big question mark hangs over the promises the G8 leaders made a year ago -- have they made good on their commitments to offering the amount of aid to Africa?

    At the Gleneagles G8 Summit held in Scotland last July, the G8 leaders pledged to double aid to African countries by 2010 to some 50 billion U.S. dollars, increase trade with them by lowering tariffs and cancel the debts of some of the poorest countries.

    So far, the debts owed by 18 poor African countries to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were written off starting from July 1 this year.

    In March, World Bank members approved a long-awaited 37-billion-dollar debt relief package for 17 impoverished African countries.

    Thanks to the writing-off, Zambia was able to start a free medical service for the rural population from April this year.

    However, the debts forgiven merely account for one sixth of the total owed by African nations. And what the G8 countries have done is far from satisfaction.

    According to Oxfam, the Britain-based charity organization, 28 of the 53 African countries rely heavily on foreign aid, but the assistance from the G8 countries is not as generous as some other developed countries.

    For the G8 countries, per capita aid to Africa stands at 90 U.S. dollars each year compared with 300 U.S. dollars in the Netherlands.

    In 2005, the G8 assistance to the poor African countries increased by 21 billion U.S. dollars, but the debts written off for Iraq and Nigeria accounted for 17 billion U.S. dollars of the sum.

    According to Oxfam, in terms of honoring the commitment, Italy was the best among the G8 countries. Last year Italy's aid to poor African countries grew by 46 percent, while the United States, Canada and Japan merely increased their aid by 16 percent, 18 percent and 14 percent respectively.

    The aid offered by France, Germany and Britain was even on the decrease last year.

    Even if the G8 countries were able to follow through on their commitments from the Gleneagles summit, the G8's assistance merely accounts for 0.35 percent of their gross national income (GNI), merely half of the target of 0.7 percent they had set 30 years ago.

    Facing such a grave situation, world leaders called for more actions to be done.