SOUTH Swindon MP Julia Drown says she is pleased with the success of a packed meeting on Third World development attended by Sir Bob Geldof and the Chancellor Gordon Brown.

Ms Drown chaired the meeting at the House of Commons, which was attended by ambassadors from countries including Ethiopia, Tanzania, Japan and Germany on Monday.

Mr Brown praised Sir Bob for his work in bringing development issues to the mass public and into the political consciousness with Live Aid and for helping persuade the Government to set up the Africa Commission.

Ms Drown said: "It was a privilege to have organised and chaired yesterday's meeting and to hear both Gordon Brown and Sir Bob Geldof speak so frankly about international development.

"The fact that this meeting was packed to overflowing shows that in Parliament and elsewhere in the country there is huge support both for what the Government has already done and a recognition that there is so much more to be done.

"As Bob Geldof said in the meeting, Britain is a leading force in international development, and with the Africa Commission and Britain's development presidency of the EU and G8, there is now a real opportunity to build a movement to make the necessary changes to institutions and attitudes necessary to tackle the huge problems of international poverty which are made worse by debt."