Separately, the Treasury has brokered a groundbreaking agreement with the US to cancel its International Monetary Fund debt for Africa - meaning the US would have offered more on debt relief than Germany or Italy.
Crucially, however, it has also offered extra money ensuring the debt relief will not be paid for by cuts in other aid programmes, at least for two years. The final amount remains under discussion, but the deal follows months of lobbying, led by Brown, of his US counterpart, John Snow.
Part of any agreement will likely involve large donations from states with oil wealth, and who knows whether or not they'll sign on.
Of course, there is a downside here:
And while some around Brown argue it is time to spend the political capital gained from Iraq to push Bush into a deal, Downing Street insists it is wrong to portray him as an obstacle. 'It's about the personal relationship between Tony Blair and George Bush in advancing the agenda,' said the official.
I very much hope that this won't require the use of all the political capital the UK picked up in Iraq - shouldn't the U.S.'s contribution to stabilizing an entire continent include at least more than half a cent on each dollar spent in Iraq?
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