British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown has said he has the G7 group of leading industrial nations' full support for immediately freezing debt repayments from countries affected by the Asian tsunami disaster.
Britain currently holds the presidency of the group.
In a speech in Edinburgh, Mr Brown said there must be a wider offer to all the world's poor countries, in Africa as well as Asia, modelled on the Marshall Plan.
The US financial package was used to help European reconstruction after World War II.
Speaking on RTÉ's News At One programme, John O'Shea from the aid agency GOAL, criticised the response to the crisis by the UN and the governments of the richest countries.
Mr O'Shea claimed the UN has been incompetent in its dealings with past crises, particularly in Africa.
