All the routes to the headquarters of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC, were blocked on September 24th and 25th by dozens of identical dumper trucks, the kind normally used to spread salted gravel on unpassable winter roads. Inside this heavy security cordon, the ministers and officials gathered for the Bank's and the Fund's annual meetings were busy clearing a path of their own. Agreement was needed on a proposal to cancel the debts owed by the world's poorest countries to the Bretton Woods twins and the African Development Bank (AfDB). The proposal already had the backing of the G8 group of rich nations. Last weekend, according to Trevor Manuel, South Africa's finance minister and chairman of one of the key committees at the meetings, the G8 agreement "emerged as the G184 agreement", supported by the entire membership of the Fund and the Bank.
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