EU ministers surprised and delighted aid agencies around the world this week when they agreed a dramatic increase in financial assistance to countries in Africa and the rest of the developing world. (BBC News story here.)

The deal comes just 6 weeks ahead of the G8 industrialised nations' summit at Gleneagles, and will mean a virtual doubling of the EU's combined aid by 2010. This unexpected success in Brussels will intensify pressure on other rich countries, notably the United States, to increase their own efforts to make poverty history.