Evian, June 02: French President Jacques Chirac said here today he was in favour of a tax on the arms trade to help finance a global fund to feed the world's hungry. Such a tax, being pushed by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, "would not be at all unjustified," Chirac told a press conference on the first day of the Group of Eight summit in the French resort town of Evian.
Lula, invited to an "enlarged dialogue" today, of G8 leaders with their counterparts from developing countries, said, he wanted revenues from the arms trade tax to go towards a fund to feed the starving and remedy the structural causes of hunger. Chirac said that as there was a sizeable trade in small arms that "indisputably feeds everyone's fears", a tax on the weapons trade was an idea should be closely considered. "Lula's idea is a simple one. People must be able to eat three times a day, and that is not the case today. This unacceptable situation must be debated," Chirac said.

The Brazilian President also suggested that rich credit or nations could invest a percentage of the debt payments they receive into a global fund on hunger.

Chirac said this week's US-Middle East summits would advance the troubled peace process, although aides said the United States should not go to it alone.

"I hope it will be able to hasten the path to peace, along with Wednesday's Aqaba summit," he said.

In his first major intervention in the Middle East peace process, Bush is to meet Arab leaders in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday before a summit with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Premier Mahmud Abbas on Wednesday in Jordanian port of Aqaba.

Bureau Report