Tony Blair has hailed the action plan for Africa agreed with fellow leaders at the G8 summit as "a signal of hope".

The UK prime minister said the pact reached at the gathering in Canada meant "we are going to help Africa to help itself".

The deal will mean billions of pounds in aid being promised to poorer countries - in return for them agreeing to radical reforms.

We are going to help Africa to help itself

Tony Blair

"This isn't old fashioned aid, it's a genuine partnership for the renewal of Africa," Mr Blair said.

"Today's document will send out a signal of hope to Africa."

The aim of the agreement with four African heads of state is to promote economic and political development.

The agreement includes support for a military intervention force and a commitment to eradicate polio.

The deal will also see �1bn a year going to help the most heavily indebted countries.

Up to $6bn of world aid will be targeted each year on Africa provided it can be proved the money will be targeted on worthwhile projects.

To describe as 'peanuts' an additional $6bn a year to countries in Africa... is a nonsense

Baroness Amos

Campaigning charities were disappointed by the deal which they described as "peanuts".

Foreign Office Minister Baroness Amos acknowledged that the UK had hoped for more from the deal.

She told BBC Radio 4's The World at One programme: "No, it is not everything that we would have wanted, and we have made that absolutely clear."

But she went on to insist that the agreement was a "very comprehensive document".

"Of course we would like to see more, and we think that there will be more.

"This is a long-term process, African leaders recognise that."

Baroness Amos added that the majority of the money that Africa wanted was private sector investment and not "aid flow".

"But of course aid flows are important, and to describe as peanuts an additional $6bn a year to countries in Africa that deliver on their commitments, I think is a nonsense."

Education and sanitation

As he prepared to fly home to London, Mr Blair said the summit would be remembered for devoting "the lion's share" of its attention to Africa.

And he said it was rightly described as a historic turning point by the Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.

"I think at the very least what it is, is a new departure in relations between the developed and the developing world."

We have a partnership based on a comprehensive view of all the different issues that need to be tackled in Africa

Tony Blair

He said the commitment to give up to $6bn a year in aid would allow African countries to improve such basic services as education and sanitation.

"We have a partnership based on a comprehensive view of all the different issues that need to be tackled in Africa.

"What we have agreed is a plan that is comprehensive and deals with that not on the basis of old-fashioned aid, simply handing out money to people, but on the basis of a deal.

"We are going to help Africa to help itself."

But Mr Blair stressed more still needed to be done, especially in moving towards free trade in the future.

Aid organisations have remained sceptical about the deal and how much it will benefit poorer countries.

They said the world leaders present at the summit had "squandered" the chance to lift Africa out of poverty.

The African deal was the climax of the two-day summit, which began in the shadow of the Middle-East crisis.