EU to Boost Poverty Aid

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The European Union has agreed to boost its aid to the developing world over the next five years, reinforcing Europe's role as a leading donor.

At a meeting of EU ministers in Brussels, the 25-nation bloc agreed to bring EU aid from €46b ($A76.4b) in 2006 to €66b in 2010.

"I consider this to be an essential development, an extremely important advance in international solidarity," said Luxembourg development minister Jean-Louis Schiltz, whose country currently holds the EU's presidency.

“Europe has shown today that international solidarity is not an empty phrase."

The EU's 15 older, and richest, member states are to make up the bulk of the effort to reach the objective with a commitment to raise development aid to 0.51 percent of GDP in 2010.

The other 10 countries that joined the EU in May 2004, agreed to try to reach a target of 0.17 percent of GDP in 2010.

While signing on to the deal, Germany, Italy and Portugal also stressed they were having deep financial problems trying to meet EU deficit limits, an EU source said.

EU members were looking to reach an agreement on development aid targets in preparation for a meeting at the United Nations in New York on September 14-16.

EU development commissioner Louis Michel said the deal "positions the European Union as the veritable global leader in development policy ahead of the high level meeting in New York."

The targets are part of the EU's contribution to meeting the millennium development goals, which were adopted by the international community in 2000 and relaunched by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in March.

Welcoming the agreement as a "breakthrough", British development secretary Hilary Benn said "This is a landmark in international efforts to make faster progress towards the millennium development goals."