The Group of Eight summit had produced a great deal of talk, but fell badly short on measurable and practical commitments, Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane said on Thursday.

"We expected this year's G8 summit to reflect the gravity and urgency of the situation globally, more so in Africa," he said in a statement.

"But rather we got more and more talk and zero practical, measurable and tangible commitments with set timelines."

Ndungane, former head of the Anglican church in South Africa, now heads African Monitor, a development funding watchdog.

He said the summit, which finished in Japan on Wednesday, had taken place against the backdrop of the worst world food crisis in 45 years, escalating oil prices, and the global "nightmare" of climate change.

African Monitor had held high hopes that the summit of the group of the world's richest nations would reflect the urgency of dealing with these issues.

It also expected that the G8 would recognise that it was failing to meet the promised US50-billion a year 2010 level of aid to Africa.

Collectively, the G8 had delivered just US3 billion of the US25 billion that was pledged to Africa in 2005.

"As it is, our expectations were largely not met," he said.

"One can hence be excused for concluding that this year's G8 summit was a talk shop especially on issues where there was just acknowledgements that there are problems without measurable practical commitments undertaken to address the issues."

Ndungane said the G8 nations had released reports on health and anticorruption measures in Africa to demonstrate progress toward fulfilling their past commitments.

However similar reports should also be released on development aid, including budgetary commitments towards development in Africa.

The summit also fell short of offering practical steps for improved global food security.

It could have committed to practical steps to ensure that unfair trade practices such as agricultural subsidies did not hinder Africa's agricultural development, especially in light of the food crisis.

Although the G8 pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions at least by 50 percent by 2050, each country was left to pursue its own path in tackling pollution blamed for global warming.

"The verbal commitments therefore are non-binding and this sounds nothing more than mere talk," Ndungane said.