HUNTSVILLE, Ont. - Stephen Harper has managed to scrape together US$5 billion from G8 leaders for the health of poor women and children -- an amount that heartened the prime minister but disappointed many developing country advocates.

Harper kicked off 'the G8 Summit by announcing a $1.1-billion increase in Canadian funding over five years for his centrepiece Third World maternal-and-child health initiative.

But it took until the end of the first day of the summit to persuade other countries to put forward enough money to reach Harper's internal target of $5 billion, sources said.

"Together we are committed to moving the world toward a day when women in developing countries will not die or suffer disabilities in pregnancy or childbirth," Harper told reporters.

The goal was to convince his counterparts to pledge huge amounts of scarce cash, despite the global economic instability. But in the end, the peaceful country air and the soothing call of the loon weren't enough to ease financial fears and loosen tight purse-strings.

Harper called it a "historic commitment," but acknowledged many leaders were "cautious" and that Canada had made a disproportionately large pledge. He said he has also received pledges of US$2.3 billion from non-G8 countries and foundations, including US$1.5 billion from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Aid advocates and international organizations alike have said that $30 billion over five years is needed in order to meet United Nations' goals to significantly reduce maternal and infant mortality. They said at least $10 billion of that should come from the G8 alone, since the club brings together the richest and most powerful countries in the world.

"Pregnant women and young children can draw little comfort from the G8 leaders' meagre offering to alleviate their suffering," said Make Poverty History, an umbrella group of large non-governmental organizations in Canada.

Nearly 200 kilometres south of the G8 summit held at the exclusive Deerhurst Resort, the normally bustling streets of downtown Toronto were relatively empty, except for some protesters and throngs of heavily armed police. Many Torontonians opted to avoid the hastles of the intense security and the blocked off G20 summit zone.

The relatively tame march by about 2,000 anti-poverty protesters was blocked by police on horseback, bicycles and in riot gear from entering the summit security zone. One protester broke the police line and was dragged into the foyer of a building, setting off an angry response from the crowd, but there was no violence.

Tens of thousands are expected to take to the streets Saturday to protest a range of issues, from poverty to financial reform.

Canada's maternal health contribution is less than the amount it's spending on the three days of the G8 and G20 summits this weekend, but it does come close to the $1.4 billion that many analysts say is Canada's fair share.

"Our contribution will make significant, tangible differences in the lives of the world's most vulnerable people," Harper said in a statement after announcing the news to the G8 leaders and seven African leaders.

But the opposition Liberals immediately called foul. Finance critic John McCallum points out that Canada's $1.1 billion is coming out of the existing budget for the Canadian International Development Agency. And since that budget is frozen, other programs for the poor will lose funding in order to pay for the Muskoka Initiative.

"The $1.1 billion for poor women and children will be paid for by money for other people," McCallum said.

Harper's spokesman insisted, however, that the money is new, since it comes from the increase in CIDA's budget this fiscal year, and the budget will not be frozen until next year.

Harper will also shuffle around an additional $1.75 billion that has already been flowing toward maternal-and-child health, and lump it in with the new money to form a large pool of targeted money specifically for the initiative.

Canada's money will be focused on a small number of countries that have extremely high maternal and infant mortality rates, such as Haiti, Afghanistan, Mali, Tanzania and Mozambique, Harper said.

The Canadian funding will focus on improving nutrition of women and babies -- an area that has long lacked for resources, even though it is cheap and easy to fix.

The G8 leaders have just another half day Saturday to strategize on such weighty issues as nuclear proliferation, terrorism, organized crime, and international development, before they move on to the bigger G20 meeting in Toronto on Saturday

There, where the membership is diverse and compromises are notoriously difficult to reach, the talks are poised to be far more difficult. Countries are divided over the best strategy to stabilize the jittery global economy.

At the G20, sources said last-minute talks were yielding little in the way of substantive agreement on issues like the global economic recovery, financial regulation, international development and climate change.

The lack of an agreement would be bad news for the Harper government, already under domestic criticism for the estimated $1.24-billion price tag of hosting the two summits.

Most of that money -- over $930 million -- is for unprecedented security measures which critics say go to far.

A judge ruled Friday that sound cannons can be used by police during the summits, but with restrictions. An alert function which protesters say can damage hearing permanently is banned.

And Ontario's Liberal government is defending its decision to secretly give police extra powers to stop and search people within five metres of security fences during the summits. Community Safety Minister Rick Bartolucci said the cabinet regulation is the same as a decades-old law that lets police search people entering a courthouse.

However, New Democrat MPP Peter Kormos said secret laws that result in arrests and detention "are the hallmarks of tin-pot dictatorships."