Haaba

LONDON, March 27, 2008 (AFP) - Britain and France on Thursday announced a tie-up between government and footballing bodies to get more children in Africa into school by the time of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Nicolas Sarkozy said after a summit at a football stadium here that they would 'build a new partnership to get 16 million children into school in Africa by 2010 and every child by 2015'.

The leaders, who have both made promises to Africa since coming to power, said in a joint statement that 2008 was a 'critical year for development' as UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), including education, were off-target.

'Halfway to 2015 (the deadline for achieving MDGs) the challenge is still great, with 33 million children in Africa still getting no primary education at all,' they said.

'The United Kingdom and France will each support eight million children in school by 2010.

'We will do this in partnership with FIFA, the English FA and Premier League and Ligue professionelle de football and the Federation francaise de football in the run-up to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa so as to leverage the tremendous impact of the event in Africa and around the world.'

The two leaders, meeting at the Emirates Stadium of Arsenal football club in London, also called on other nations to support the target of universal primary education and vowed to help recruit and train the estimated 3.8 millionteachers required for sub-Saharan Africa by 2015.

There were also renewed pledges on improving health provision in developing countries, particularly tackling malaria, tuberculosis, HIV and AIDS.