Official aid to the world's poor countries continues to rise but will in future be exaggerated by one-off events such as debt relief for Iraq and help for tsunami sufferers in Asia, according to the body that measures it.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Paris- based intergovernmental think-tank, will reveal today that aid to poor countries was $78.6bn (€60.9bn, £41.7bn) last year, an increase in real terms of 4.6 per cent over 2003. Increases from the US, UK, Spain and Canada more than offset falls from Japan and Germany.