Leaders of the world's major industrialized nations, hoping to stem a growing backlash against globalization, pledged Sunday at their annual economic summit to do more to provide schooling, health care and food to the poorest nations.

In a communique issued at the conclusion of their three-day summit, the leaders cited "unprecedented economic progress" by many world nations and agreed that more must be done to spread that prosperity to poorer nations. "The 21st century must be a century of prosperity for all," they said. They said their countries must work harder to relieve the debt burden of developing nations. "We must for our part promote more responsible lending and borrowing practices to ensure that (poor countries) will not again be burdened by unsupportable debt," the communique said. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, whose country agreed to restructure $4 billion of Russia's debt, suggested that wealthy nations hold back demands for poorer countries to pay off their loans. "It would be better to put the money in health and education systems in these countries," he told reporters. The Okinawa meeting was the first "development summit" for the Group of Eight - leaders of the seven richest industrialized nations and Russia, and the last G-8 meeting for President Clinton. Clinton announced that the United States will send $300 million in surplus farm crops to provide school lunches in the developing world. The eight countries set a goal of universal primary education for all the world's children by 2015, and gender equality in schools by 2005. Currently, 100 million children in developing nations are not in school. They also vowed to reduce by the year 2010 the number of HIV-infected young people by 25 percent, tuberculosis deaths by 50 percent, and the burden of diseases associated with malaria by 50 percent.