DAR ES SALAAM Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa has slammed rich nations talking too much about debt relief, investment and access to markets for developing states while reneging on their promises to actually do anything about it.

"The rich North should stop the rhetoric and start delivering on their promises," Mkapa told the opening session here Thursday of a four-day 23rd international congress of the Society for International Development (SID).

"Africa did not get much support for the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) from the G8 summit in Kananaskis, Canada, last week," Mkapa said in reaction to the decisions made at the Group of Eight meeting.

"Africa was asked to narrow the gap between rhetoric and reality in terms of good governance and I have no problem with that," Mkapa said.

"It is only fair to ask rich countries, too, to narrow the gap between rhetoric and reality in terms of imperatives such as development-producing resource flows, debt relief and market access," Mkapa added.

NEPAD falls under the umbrella of the new African Union (AU) to be launched next week at a summit in Durban, South Africa, to replace the Organization of African Unity (OAU).

The new development initiative seeks to use visible progress on democracy, fiscal discipline and human rights to leverage new donor and private funding for development projects across the continent, AFP reported.

Mkapa told the SID congress, attended by about 200 delegates from around the world, that the NEPAD resource needs were estimated at $64 billion, but not much came out concretely from the G8 summit.

"Beyond the six billion dollars in new aid and an extra one billion dollars for debt relief under the enhanced HIPC (highly indebted poor countries) initiative, not much came out concretely, let alone with a timeframe, and measurable goals," Mkapa said. In his speech, Mkapa attacked Western countries for "consistently preaching to Africa and other least developed countries (LDCs) the virtues of an open market trading system, while keeping their overly protectionist policies at home."

He said agriculture and processed agricultural products -- including dairy products, meat, fish, textiles and leather goods from the LDCs -- often encounter enormous barriers in terms of subsidies in rich industrialized countries.

"We are conditioned not to subsidize agriculture on which the very lives and welfare of our people critically depend, but all we get in return is a vague commitment on their part to look again at their own agricultural subsidies," the Tanzanian president said.