The US is "optimistic" about the potential success of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad), a senior administration official told reporters attending the G8 Summit in Sea Island, Georgia, this week.

In a background briefing, the official said that the international donor community has had to be "much more realistic" about the development goals that can be achieved in Africa.

"Billions (of dollars) have been invested in various ways in Africa. And still," the senior official warned, "Africa is the one continent that will probably not meet the Millennium Development goals in 2015," despite many years of support from the donor community.

That, the official pointed out, "means that the developed world has not had the answers to solving the problems on the continent."

Expressing optimism, however, the official said, "We and the G8 believe that the answers will come from the leaders on the continent and the people on the continent, and that Nepad is probably the first and the strongest indication of a coordinated effort on the part of the Africans to be held accountable for the problems and solutions."

The leaders of six African nations - Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal, Ghana, Uganda and Algeria - are attending the G8 Summit.

The six leaders were invited as representatives of Nepad.