MORE than 500 students have e-mailed Chancellor Gordon Brown to urge him to help to cancel Third World debt.

The e-mail, from Carmel RC Technology College students, was organised by the schools' FairTrade group and was part of the Make Poverty History campaign.

The students want Mr Brown to lay the foundations for a historic deal on trade, debt and aid in 2005, and agree to cancel the debts of the worlds poorest countries.

The FairTrade group had hoped to get 200 students to sign the e-mail.

Year ten pupil Charlotte Allinson said the group was thrilled with the response.

"We wanted to do this because it is a brilliant thing to do and, as a Catholic school, we think students should be aware of what is going on in the world.

"We did a series of posters and wore t-shirts to promote it as well as giving a briefing to staff."

The group was only founded a few weeks ago and has so far concentrated most of its efforts on the e-mail campaign.

Charlotte said she hoped the group would go on to set up a fair trade stall in the school.

RE teacher David Bayne said: "This was a much better response than we had expected.

"The FairTrade group has really taken off, especially among year ten students, who have a strong sense of justice."