June 12 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair today travels to Russia to campaign for further African aid from the Group of Eight nations after finance ministers in London agreed to cancel $40 billion of debt from the poorest countries.

His visit is part of a three-day trip across Europe to prepare an agenda for July's G-8 summit in Scotland. After meeting tomorrow in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Blair will travel to Berlin, Luxembourg and Paris.

Blair, who will host the G-8 summit, has tabled an agenda that includes seeking agreement to fight pollution and global warming. He also wants to build on yesterday's debt relief agreement with additional measures to lift trade barriers and fight disease across Africa.

``When we decided to make Africa and climate change the two key issues of the G-8 summit, we were setting the bar pretty high for ourselves,'' Blair said in parliament in London on June 9.

Last month, the U.K.-led Commission for Africa recommended western nations double aid payments to a total of $50 billion by 2015 and erase the debts of the world's poorest nations.

Blair also wants EU nations to drop trade barriers that push up the cost of goods from Africa. That's crucial support for African economies, said South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

`Very Encouraged'

``I am very much encouraged by what happened yesterday with the finance ministers from the G-8 countries,'' Tutu said on British Broadcasting Corp. television. ``I hope that the heads of these countries will be sensitive and will say we're on the same side, we want to eradicate poverty, we want to ensure that trade conditions are equitable and we want to increase aid.''

Under yesterday's accord, eighteen mainly African nations will immediately qualify for cancellation of debts owed to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the African Development Bank.

After his talks in Moscow, Blair will fly to Berlin for a meeting with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. On Tuesday, he will meet with Luxembourg President Jean-Claude Juncker and then French President Jacques Chirac in talks that may be dominated by disagreements over the EU budget.

Blair has clashed with Chirac over the future of a 3.5 billion-pound ($6.4 billion) rebate that it receives from EU funds to compensate largely for higher farm aid payments that flow to France and Italy.

Blair, who next month will take over the rotating EU presidency from Luxembourg, said on June 10 that he would only consider cutting the rebate if France's farm aid is cut.

`Entitled'

Politicians from the U.K.'s opposition Conservative Party today raised the pressure on Blair not to yield to French demands to cut the rebate, which was negotiated by former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1984.

``I was very nervous when Tony Blair started saying he'd be prepared to negotiate about it,'' said Malcolm Rifkind, the Conservative spokesman for Work and Pensions, on the BBC. ``We're entitled to it because even with it, we're still the second largest contributor to the EU budget.''

The EU leaders will meet in Brussels on June 16 and 17 to discuss the budget and to debate the region's governing rules after French and Dutch voters rejected the constitutional treaty. The U.K. on June 6 postponed its own referendum on the constitution this week, defying calls from Chirac, Schroeder and Juncker for member states to continue with the ratification.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alexander Hanrath in London at ahanrath1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 12, 2005 07:24 EDT