Brown says UK will increase overseas aid despite deficit.

Gordon Brown yesterday promised that Britain would keep its pledge to raise its overseas development aid budget to an internationally agreed target of 0.7 percent of national income in spite of the growing budget deficit.

Britain, along with other G8 countries, promised at the Gleneagles summit in 2005 to raise aid spending to that 0.7 percent level by 2013. The prime minister said the UK government was working with its partners in the G20 and at the World Bank to set up a new fund specifically to help the world's poorest people during the downturn. He said the UK would also push to win developing nations a bigger role in international institutions, like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Brown also said the Millennium Development Goals 'must remain a central focus of our[G20] efforts.

In related news, Al Jazeera reports that Douglas Alexander, Britain's international development minister, has set out new proposals aimed at helping people in developing countries hit by the global credit crunch. The measures include an international 'rapid response' fund that would provide a safety net for the world's most vulnerable people. Alexander said the multi-billion dollar fund would be specifically targeted at certain groups, including women, children, elderly people and the disabled, with food provided for children and medical care for pregnant women.