France's President Emmanuel Macron has said Europe and the US should urgently allocate 3% to 5% of their coronavirus vaccine supplies to developing countries where vaccination campaigns have scarcely begun.

In an interview with the UK-based Financial Times newspaper ahead of Friday's video conference between G7 leaders, he said some African nations were having to buy Western vaccines at over twice the price paid by the European Union.

He said that "transferring 3% to 5% of the vaccines we have in stock to Africa” would not affect domestic inoculation programmes.

“It’s in the interest of the French and the Europeans. Today I have more than 10m of our fellow citizens who have families on the other side of the Mediterranean,” he was quoted as saying.