§ The Secretary of State for International Development (Hilary Benn)At the Donors' Conference on Iraq, in Madrid on 24 October, the UK will make a total financial commitment towards Iraq's reconstruction of £544 million for the three years from April 2003, including the funding that we have provided so far and our share of proposed European Community spending in Iraq. £248 million is humanitarian and reconstruction assistance already committed by DFID and other Government Departments (£9 million of which is our share of the EC commitment), and £296 million will be for the period up to March 2006 (£29 million of which is10WS our share of currently proposed EC spending). We expect to channel a substantial proportion of this spending through Multi-Donor Trust Fund arrangements being established by the World Bank and the United Nations, and to continue to support bilateral and multilateral programmes in Iraq. This funding does not include the costs of maintaining security in Iraq, towards which we are making a major contribution. Nor will it involve any reduction in DFID's planned development expenditure for low income countries. We remain committed to deliver £1 billion of bilateral assistance for Africa in 2005–6, and to increase the proportion of bilateral spending on low income countries to 90 per cent. by the same time.