The US Agency for International Development will unveil early next year a comprehensive strategy for improving democracy and governance in developing countries, a significant step in re-orienting US aid programmes to support the democratisation agenda of President George W. Bush.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Andrew Natsios, the USAID administrator who steps down at the beginning of next year, said the democracy strategy was a key milestone in the re-orientation of US aid programmes to focus on issues of effective governance alongside traditional development projects