Cairo  - The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on Tuesday called for an increase in development assistance to poor countries of at least 50 billion US dollars annually.

In a briefing in Cairo ahead of UNCTAD's 2008 trade and development report, officials said an increase in assistance is important for raising production capacities and achieving the UN's Millennium Development Goals, which are focused on halving poverty worldwide by 2015.

The report is to be formally released on Thursday in Geneva and presents an outlook for the world economy and the economic prospects for developing countries in view of the situation in international financial, currency and commodity markets.

The report calls for a fresh approach to development financing that focuses less on the mobilization of savings and more on direct stimulation of investment.

Development assistance would be more beneficial if organizations directed aid into local investments, officials said in outlining the report.

"Egypt is committed to backing up the UNCTAD in its mission for helping the developing countries to be a part of the world economy," Souad Shalaby, Egypt's assistant foreign minister, told reporters Tuesday at the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.

Among the 49 nations designated by the UN as "least developed countries," 33 are in Africa and 10 in Asia.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development was established in 1964 and promotes the development-friendly integration of developing countries into the world economy. (dpa)