Washington: World Bank has mooted a 7-point swift action plan to fulfill the "millennium development" agenda to uplift the world poor by taking advantage of the favourable international environment.

World Bank President James Wolfensohn said in a statement before the Bank's spring meeting beginning April 21, that last month's Monterrey meeting on financing for development has highlighted a strong consensus for stepping up development aid and the challenge now is to implement the agreement reached there.

Industrialised nations have been asked to increase their Overseas Development Assistance to the committed level of 0.7 per cent of their GDP as against the present level of 0.3 per cent.

He asked the Development Committee, the highest policy making body of the World Bank, to endorse the Bank's plan to "fast track 10 countries to be selected by June 2002 for immediate and increased support to help them meet the goal of education for all, which included achieving full enrollment of all primary school aged children by 2015.

Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha is slated to attend the Development Committee meeting beginning in Washington on April 21.

PTI