WORRIED by an avalanche of unfulfilled promises of debt relief from Western countries, President Olusegun Obasanjo in Mexico on Thursday gave vent to his frustration, accusing them of not keeping their pledges.

The President spoke at an International Conference on Financing for Development held in Monterrey, Mexico.

Presenting his case at the forum, the President said when he assumed office about three years ago, he got warm words and several pledges from various western leaders with whom he discussed Nigeria's debt problem .

But with its tenure of office coming to an end, Obasanjo said not a single cent of debt relief had so far been granted by the creditors who are in the advanced countries.

He lamented that in the past three years, Nigeria has had to spend five billion dollars in servicing its foreign debts, even though the same debts had been repaid two times over.

The funds used to service debts, he explained, would have been used to improve the lives of the Nigerians.

Nigeria's foreign debt is put at $28 billion, most of it accruing from accumulated interests and punitive charges. The President reminded the meeting that the problems of one part of the world were invariably problems of the whole world, adding that such contention could be demonstrated by the terrorist attacks on the United States last September 11.

As the world grapples with the heightened task of dealing with terrorism, it must also understand that national security cannot be achieved without human security, Obasanjo said.

He commended the recent shift in approach and announcement of increase in official development assistance by the U. S. and the European Union.

The President listed the expectations of developing countries from the conference in Monterrey as substantial debt relief for all developing countries beyond the initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs); the provision of market access for their products and the reversal of declines in official development assistance flows.

"Developing countries also want effectiveness in the allocation of aid by donors and utilisation by recipient nations, as well as continued commitment to the millennium development goals of eradicating poverty, disease and illiteracy while preserving environmental resources," he said.

The president said that an agreement which he termed the "Monterrey Compact" should emerge from the conference, in which developing countries would commit themselves to accountability while the rich nations would venture to gradually but steadily increase official development assistance to reach 0.5 per cent of their Gross National Income by 2007.

He also called for a joint agreement to begin negotiations to reduce tariffs and quotas by next year.

For him, if the promises of the Monterrey Conference, like previous international gatherings cannot be kept, then the world needs to re-examine the utility of such exercises.

The conference ended yesterday .