21/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - EU foreign ministers meeting on Monday at the General Affairs/External Relations Council discussed the 2005 Annual Report on EU development policy and on implementation of external aid in 2004. In their conclusions, they state their “concern” about the fact that, even though the amounts paid out to low income countries and the least developed countries increased 10% in 2004, their share in total EU development aid was down 0.8%. In November 2004, the Council had requested that EU aid should focus more on the poorest countries, and on Africa in particular. On Monday, the Council called on the Commission to present, in its report for 2006, a more exact breakdown showing the total amounts and also the percentage share of payments paid out to the different categories depending on the income of beneficiary countries. Ministers welcomed the fact that the overall rate of external aid disbursement was up 10% in 2004. Whereas funds made available to the ACP countries increased by 5%, those under the MEDA programme rose 60% in 2004.