Johannesburg: A three-day World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting opening in South Africa on June 5, will evaluate business support for a rescue plan for Africa ahead of a G8 summit of highly developed nations later this June, organisers say.

The extent of backing by the private sector in Africa for the ambitious New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) will be one of the determining factors in the Group of Eight's reaction to the plan at its June 26 and 27 summit in Kananaskis, Canada, WEF managing director Frederic Sicre told reporters in Johannesburg.

"The G8 leaders are going to closely eye the summit. Their response will be on how strongly the private sector in Africa will be behind this plan," he said.

Seven African Presidents, including South African host Thabo Mbeki, Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal and Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, three of the main architects of NEPAD, are expected to attend the forum in the East Coast city of Durban.

It will group some 700 delegates from governments and business from 47 countries, 26 of them African. The other heads of state expected are Bakili Muluzi of Malawi, Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Levy Mwanawasa of Zambia.

The Swiss-based WEF said in a statement that the forum would create the first high- level opportunity for international business to engage African leaders directly, at the highest level, to discuss the plan.

"There has never been a better time for Africa to restate its case, louder than ever, that it is ready for change and open for business," said WEF Africa Director Haiko Alfeld.

The plan sets an annual gross domestic product growth rate target of more than seven percent for the next 15 years, and aims to reduce the number of Africans living in extreme poverty by half by 2015.

G8 leaders have come out in support of NEPAD, notably Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, the current G8 Chairman, who made a five-country tour of Africa in April and pronounced that he was impressed by it. He said African leaders were "talking about what is required to put Africa back on the agenda of the world and to create the proper climate for investments".

Wiseman Nkuhlu, Mbeki's Economic Advisor and Chairman of the NEPAD steering committee, said he believed the forum would help to improve Africa's relationship with the world at large. "The G8 countries are very positive about NEPAD. We expect to get a firm and concrete undertaking for their support at Kananaskis," he told reporters.

On June 6, Mbeki will launch a $ 639-million undersea fibre-optic cable linking Africa with Europe and Asia and which will improve global connectivity significantly.

South African Cosmonaut Mark Shuttleworth, the world's second space tourist, will tell delegates how it feels to look at Earth from space, and Tim Sebastian, of the BBC Hard-Talk programme, will host a plenary session.