But the requirements of HIPC were so strict that only two countries have benefited from it.

CNN: FIXING THE WORLD

Rather than suffer the purgatory of the HIPC initiative, should debtors be granted immediate and full absolution?

ECONOMIST: Inviting China to dinner

Since then, they have offered to write down some of the money owed to them by heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC).

ECONOMIST: Inviting China to dinner

Under the IMF''s Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt relief program, Senegal benefited from eradication of two-thirds of its bilateral, multilateral, and private-sector debt.

FORBES: Senegal

The govenment had already been operating a ban on arms export guarantees to the 41 nations covered by the internationally-agreed Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC).

BBC: Ban on underwriting arms sales

Britain, again, has an answer: forgive the debts of all poor countries, including Bangladesh and Vietnam, not just those in such a mess they qualify for the current HIPC initiative.

ECONOMIST: Inviting China to dinner

While the enhanced HIPC effort should help get the poorest nations to the economic table, the rest of the world - and especially Asia - is still wondering if the table is stable.

CNN: FIXING THE WORLD

The HIPC initiative has made fitful progress.

ECONOMIST: Inviting China to dinner

As part of their preparatory work for the summit, finance ministers, when they met in Halifax, also discussed another much-heralded policy initiative, first introduced in 1999: the provision of debt relief to the poorest developing countries, known as HIPC.

ECONOMIST: Caring at Kananaskis | The

The debt-relief measure, championed by the White House, charity groups and religious and cultural figures from Pope John Paul II to singer Bono of the rock band U2, allows the United States to pay its share under the global Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative to forgive the debts of some 30 Third World countries.

CNN: Clinton to sign bill reducing Third World debt