BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: The UK is to stop direct aid to 16 countries, including Russia, China and Iraq, papers seen by the BBC suggest.
| Why would Russia and China need direct aid? |
A draft copy of a government review of its £7.8bn overseas aid budget - to be published this week - also reveals assistance for India will be frozen. But, overall, the international development budget will rise by a third in this parliament, it says.
International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said spending would be a "good deal better focused".
Resources will be concentrated on the 27 countries that account for three-quarters of the world's maternal mortality and malaria deaths, such as Ghana and Afghanistan.
| In other words, the bottom billion. |
|