PM hosts development conference

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Gordon Brown is hosting a conference to encourage business to aid development, particularly in Africa.

He will be joined at Canary Wharf in London by the heads of some of the world's biggest companies, including Microsoft, Vodafone, and Coca-Cola.

The CEOs of more than a dozen multinational companies will outline what they have done in training and business initiatives in Africa.

These include using mobile phones to check crop prices.

The date of 2015 has already been set as a deadline to cut poverty - as defined by a set of targets referred to as the Millennium Development Goals.

These include cutting in half the number of people living in poverty, halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing primary education for all.

Most of these targets are still a long way from being met.

Mr Brown is trying to encourage business to take risks in countries in Africa, so that the burden of development does not depend only on government budgets.

He has previously said that the world "can and must do more" to help end world poverty and its consequences.