Considering her huge domestic and external debt, Ghana stands to benefit from the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) for debt relief, Britain\'s Secretary of State for International Development, Ms Clare Short said in Accra on Tuesday.

Ghana, she said, will benefit from a relief to the tune of between 170 and 200 million dollars in the first year if she joins the initiative.

Ms Short was giving a lecture on the new British Government White Paper on International Development, titled \"Eliminating World Poverty: Making Globalisation work for the Poor.\"

She said opting for HIPC would reduce the pressure on government in debt interest payments and permit re-allocation of such resources to other critical sectors of the economy.

\"The prospects of reducing poverty and channelling funds which otherwise will be used in servicing debts to other productive sectors are very high under the HIPC,\" she said.

The White Paper seeks to reduce extreme poverty among people by half, increase access to universal primary education in all countries by 2015, and implement national strategies for sustainable development in all countries by 2005.

Debt relief, Ms Short said, is important only when resources generated from it are conditionally linked to policies that reduce poverty and increase social justice.

She, however, stressed the need for Ghana to weigh the benefits vis-a-vis the disadvantages that the country will derive from HIPC so that a definite stand could be taken, saying the decision is entirely in the hands of government.

The Japanese Ambassador to Ghana Mr Hiromu Mittah said his country would not block Ghana\'s desire to join the initiative. However, as a policy, Japan will not provide loans and aids to countries that opt for the initiative.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Evans Addae-Mensah, who chaired the function, said global inequality would continue as long as trade imbalances exist between the developed and the developing economies.

The answer, he maintained, lies in ensuring fair terms of trade between the two economies