All European countries should contribute at least 0.7 percent of their national income for Asian tsunami-hit countries, European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid Louis Michel said Sunday.
"The best idea is first to reach the point that all European countries donate at least 0.7 percent of their GDP" as tsunami aid, Belgian media quoted the European commissioner as saying.
Louis Michel, a former Belgian foreign minister, had visited the region hit by the strong tidal waves on Dec. 26, 2004. He had made a report on the consequences of the tsunamis before a European Union (EU) meeting Friday.
The European Union vowed Friday to further bolster support for disaster-hit south Asia, and stressed focus must now turn rapidly from relief operation to post-disaster reconstruction.
On the issue of debt relief for all tsunami-hit nations, Michel said that he supported an "annulment of the debt of all poor countries," but he said he did not see any necessity of canceling the debts of Indonesia, Thailand or Sri Lanka.
The rich industrialized countries of the Paris Club adopted a debt-freezing plan to the tsunami-hit nations at a summit in Jakarta on Thursday.
(Xinhua News Agency January 10, 2005)
