Washington  - Ten of the world's richest countries have pledged 6.1 billion dollars to help poor countries deal with the effects of global warming, the World Bank said Friday.

The money will be part of two new investment funds to be run by the World Bank and other development banks to finance projects that help poor nations cut their greenhouse-gas emissions and tackle some of the already-existing consequences of a warming planet. Countries will get the funding through a combination of loans and grants.

"Today, we are uniting to fight global climate change," said World Bank President Robert Zoellick. "These funds are a concrete step forward toward reconciling the challenge of global climate change with the challenge of development and overcoming poverty."

The United States has offered 2 billion dollars over three years, Britain added 1.5 billion dollars and Japan 1.2 billion dollars to the total. The other contributing countries were Australia, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

David McCormick, US undersecretary for international affairs, said the funds would provide the resources "to begin the important work of reducing greenhouse gas emissions growth in the developing world." (dpa)