African leaders welcome G-8 action plan, seek implementation.

CALGARY, Canada, June 27 Kyodo

African leaders on Thursday welcomed an African assistance action plan adopted by the Group of Eight (G-8) leaders earlier in the day and called for steady implementation.

''We are very pleased with the outcome of this meeting,'' South African President Thabo Mbeki said at a news conference in Calgary after the end of a two-day G-8 summit in Kananaskis, a Canadian Rocky Mountains resort about 100 kilometers away.

Mbeki, accompanied by Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade and Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, said they are ''pleased with the resolve of the G-8 to work together with us.''

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who hosted the G-8 summit, invited the African leaders to attend the summit as he took up aid to Africa as one of the focuses of this year's annual summit of the G-8.

The G-8, which groups Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States, ended the summit with adoption of the G-8 Africa Action Plan.

The plan is aimed at supporting the New Partnership for Africa's Development, a framework adopted by African leaders last year that commits them to undertake self-help efforts toward development and eventual integration with the world economy in cooperation with the international community.

It offers increased aid and foreign investment to countries in Africa that are willing to eliminate government corruption and pursue free-market reforms.

Mbeki said the adoption of the G-8 action plan is only a start, adding it is important for the G-8 and African countries to cooperate in fighting poverty and promoting development through ''practical implementation of the project.''