Under that bargain, the poor countries were to have the Millennium Development Goals reaffirmed, along with promises of more aid and debt relief, a pledge to tackle climate change and progress on disarmament.

ECONOMIST: The United Nations

The country's pledge to increase spending on foreign aid from its current level of 0.35% of GDP to 0.5% of GDP by 2015-16 will also be postponed by a year.

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Demands by some Conservative MPs for legislation paving the way for a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU were ignored, as were calls from charities to enshrine in law David Cameron's pledge to spend 0.7% of national income on foreign aid.

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Instead, transfers are likely to keep growing, as the government scrabbles to meet an international pledge to lift official aid spending from about 0.5% of gross national income today to 0.7% by 2013 (see chart).

ECONOMIST: Reforming foreign aid

They want rich nations to pledge 1.5% of their GDP, as well as meeting the widely accepted target for aid of 0.7% of GDP.

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