Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what her estimate is of the expenditure of her Department onoverseas development assistance in each of the poorest 20 countries in the world for each of the past five years; and if she willmake a statement. [26690]Clare Short: Total DFID bilateral expenditure in the poorest 20 countries in the world over the last five financial years is asfollows:£000_________________________________________________________________________________________________.1996-97 1997-98 1998-99 1999-2000 2000-01Benin 30 0 88 82 37Burkina Faso 204 156 305 267 234Burundi 1,560 1,602 324 912 1,547Chad 142 153 -- -- 270Congo, Rep. 107 6,911 552 1,322 3,096Eritrea 1,210 1,200 868 438 2,385Ethiopia 7,931 7,357 8,733 6,969 16,194Guinea-Bissau 6 76 8 -- 120Kenya 26,428 29,434 33,143 27,051 51,923Madagascar 399 487 410 943 561Malawi 33,554 25,693 47,251 46,687 56,941Mali 523 697 331 205 411Mozambique 22,198 21,943 26,281 43,893 41,281Niger 112 151 162 177 150Nigeria 7,866 9,345 11,215 14,596 17,123Rwanda 9,704 6,198 13,642 14,394 32,878Sierra Leone 10,619 3,133 8,948 29,914 35,022Tanzania 48,191 42,196 50,105 64,323 68,687Yemen, Rep. 1,975 1,049 1,048 1,488 2,647Zambia 17,399 16,183 14,807 14,293 55,934Total 190,158 173,864 218,231 267,954 387,441_________________________________________________________________________________________________.Source: Statistics on International Development 1996-97 to 2000-01This increase in the amount of UK aid spent on the poorest countries is in line with the Government's policy, set out in the 1997White Paper on International Development, to refocus our efforts on the elimination of poverty.Poorest countries are defined ashaving the lowest GNI/capita in the most recent year for which data are available (1999).