Italy holds the presidency of the G8 this year and they have agreed that development and Africa will be a key element of the G8 Leaders Summit in Italy in July. As with previous summits, the UK Government will continue to work through all available channels in the lead up to the summit to ensure that tackling global health challenges remains a high priority for the leaders' agenda. The UK is strongly committed to reducing death and suffering from drug-resistant tuberculosis, and will encourage other G8 partners to ensure that tuberculosis is addressed as part of the comprehensive package of G8 measures. This should enable developing countries to make faster progress towards the millennium development goal targets.