The chancellor has said the government will meet its commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of Britain's national income on aid by 2013.

The increase in Britain's overseas spend will be possible thanks to a 9.2 per cent boost in the budget for the Department for International Development.

The department's budget will increase to more than £5.3 billion a year by 2007/08, from £3.8 billion at present.

The extra funding follows similar cash injections for the department in the previous two spending plans.

Gordon Brown announced the developments during Monday's spending review.

Brown told the Commons that the total UK overseas development assistance will reach 0.47 per cent of National Income by 2007/08, equating to nearly £6.5 billion a year.

He said this represented a real terms increase of 140 per cent since 1997.

Hilary Benn, secretary of state for international development, welcomed the new allocation.

"This is an excellent settlement, which demonstrates the government’s continuing commitment to tackling global poverty and reaching the 0.7 per cent ODA/GNI target", he said.

"These additional resources will be used to increase UK bilateral aid to Africa to at least £1.25 billion a year by 2008, spend at least £1.5 billion on HIV/Aids related work over the next three years, and ensure that more children in the world’s poorest countries are able to go to primary school."