CAIRO, May 26 (AFP) - The United States promised here Wednesday that "something substantial" on reducing the debt of the world's poorest countries will emerge from a summit of industrialized nations in Germany next week, as appeals for relief gathered pace. "You will definitely see something substantial on debt coming out of Cologne," the host city for the the Group of Seven summit, Assistant US Treasury Secretary Edwin Truman said during the African Development Bank's annual board meetings in Cairo. Other creditor nations appealing here for debt relief were the Netherlands, Norway, Britain, Canada, Japan and France. A British official criticized Washington for not doing enough, although he was encouraged by Truman's comments. "We see a need for faster and deeper debt reduction, and President (Bill) Clinton is committed to press for significant improvements in current programs at the G-7 summit next month, even beyond those he announced in March," Truman said. Clinton asked the international community in March to take actions that could result in forgiving 70 billion dollars in debt as he offered to help countries committed to reform. African countries were looking to the G-7 summit in Cologne for "a new initiative" to tackle the debt problem more comprehensively than existing initiatives, African delegates said here. They complained that debt burdens were so heavy they could not invest in health, education and infrastructure as well as other areas to ease the plight of the poor. The ADB is targeting eradicating poverty as its priority over the next few years. Africa's total debt amounted to 370 billion dollars in 1996, and more countries in Africa than any other continent could not service their debt, officials at the ADB conference said. But a senior US treasury official who asked not to be named cautioned there would not be a "grand, new plan rolled out with all the I's dotted and T's crossed." Delegates at the ADB annual board of governors pointed to the inadequacy of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC), under which the World Bank oversees a trust fund for countries that cannot service their debts. Seven countries, including Uganda and four other African countries, have qualified for the HIPIC program. More debt relief is needed in the early years and a lasting solution has to be found, said George Foulkes, the governor representing Britain at the meetings of 77 governors from the ADB's African and non-African member countries. He said debt relief should be awarded based on the commitment of the recipient to tackling poverty. Foulkes told AFP that both the United States and Japan should play a greater role in debt relief than they have, but understood the US Congress had the final say. A Kenyan who asked not to be named lamented that African countries had never formed a forum to devise a collective debt strategy. "We fully sit back and make appeals and wait for the G-7 to come up with whatever its decision." The Group of Seven most industrialized countries is made up of the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.  