By Steve Schifferes BBC News Online at the IMF/World Bank meeting in Washington

The World Bank says the millennium development goals will not be met without additional aid and warns that absolute poverty will increase in Africa.

Wolfensohn: war on poverty continues

The head of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn, says he is worried that while attention is focused on Iraq, the "other war" against global poverty will be ignored.

The Bank projects that the number of people living in absolute poverty will only decline slowly in the next 15 years, with 800 million having an income of below $1 per day in 2015, compared to 1.1bn in 1999.

But in sub-Saharan Africa, the numbers in poverty will rise from 315m to 404m in the same period, making it the region with the most poor people.

People in Extreme Poverty East Asia 1999: 279m 2015: 80m South Asia 1999: 488m 2015: 264m Africa 1999: 315m 2015: 404m Latin America: 1999 57m 2015: 47m Income below $1 per day source: World Bank

Eric Swanson, one of the authors of the report, has told BBC News Online that the main reason is that economic growth in Africa is expected to be much weaker over the period than in other developing countries.

It is due to average just 1.6% per capita compared to 3.5% per capita in the rest of the developing world in the decade leading up to 2015.

But he said that African countries were also less efficient at translating economic growth into poverty reduction, whether through poor governance, lop-sided income distribution or the prevalence of war and conflict.

However, he says that a major liberalisation of agricultural trade could reduce global poverty by another 300m by 2015.

So far, trade talks aimed at opening up rich countries' agricultural markets are stalled ahead of a major trade meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in September.

Health and education for all

The millennium development goals set targets for improving child and maternal health, making sure every child has a primary education and improving water and sanitation.

But the Bank says that these targets will not be met by economic growth alone, even if developing countries increase their own budgets.

Extra Aid Needed Each Year Education: $8bn - $10bn Health: $15bn - $30bn Water: $12bn - $25bn Total: $35bn - $65bn source: World Bank

Mr Swanson told the BBC that $35bn to $65bn annually was needed in extra aid from rich countries, roughly doubling the current amount of development aid.

Gordon Brown, the UK finance minister, has proposed raising this sum by creating an "international financing facility", through which rich countries could increase the amount of aid by borrowing extra funds from private capital markets.

He is hoping that the proposal will be considered at a summit of G7 leaders in Evian, France, in June.

Military burden

Mr Swanson said that military spending by developing countries was a significant burden that made it more difficult for them to improve health and education.

The average poor country spends 2.3% of its GDP on defence, twice as much as it allocates from the public purse to health care.

Health and education spending Africa health: $29 primary education: $48 South Asia health: $21 primary education: $38 East Asia health: $44 primary education $127 Rich countries health: $2,736 primary education: $4,088 health: spending per person education: spending per pupil Source: World Bank, 2000

In terms of per capita spending, the disparities between rich and poor countries are vast, with rich countries spending up to 100 times more per person on health and education than in the poorest regions.

The United States alone spends $1.3 trillion yearly on health, compared to $45bn for all low-income countries.

Rich countries spend 10% of their GDP on health, compared to 4% in poor countries.