Russia rated UK's biggest threat after al-Qaeda and Iran
4 Jul 2008, 1858 Hrs

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London, July 4 (ANI): Britain's security services have identified Russia as the third most serious threat facing the country after al-Qaeda terrorism and Iranian nuclear proliferation.

The services are understood to fear that Russia's three main intelligence agencies have flooded the country with agents, according to The Times.

This alarming piece of news comes as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown prepares to meet Russian President Medvedev in Hokkaido, Japan, on the sidelines of the Group of Eight (G-8) Summit.

Reflecting the sensitivity of the encounter, senior British officials declined to give details of the issues that Brown intends to raise, clearly not wanting to raise the temperature in advance.

According to The Times, Brown is expected to use his first G-8 summit to urge his colleagues to meet their pledges to double aid to Africa.

British officials said that the G-8 was not on track to meet commitments made at the Gleneagles Summit in 2005 to double aid to 50 billion pounds a year worldwide and aid to Africa to 25 billion pounds.

They expect the summit to reaffirm that commitment - although the words are not yet in the summit communiqu?.

Brown wants a G-8 commitment to helping countries to increase the number of health workers to 2.3 per 1,000 people and providing 60 billion dollars (30 billion pounds) for health over a set period. (ANI)