AFRICAN ministers from 17 states have pledged at a conference on the continent’s external debt to meet any tough conditions set by donors, if they agree to release funds immediately. The two-day conference ended on Tuesday night in Nairobi. They called for a two-way approach in efforts to reduce the continent’s debt burden estimated at 350 billion US dollars. President Festus Mogae of Botswana said that donors’ stringent conditions are partly to blame for the problem. The ministers have also appealed to African leaders to root out corruption. They have agreed that the entire debt owed by African states should be scrapped, adding that Japan has already written off 30 billion dollars and that Britain and France are sympathetic to the idea.