Developing countries will receive €2bn ($2.5bn, £1.3bn) a year of aid from the European Union to help them integrate into the global economy.

Ministers from the 25 EU member states on Monday agreed to assign the bulk of the cash – first promised at a World Trade Organisation meeting in Hong Kong in 2005 – to countries negotiating controversial economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with the EU. The accords are expected to come into force in January 2008.