There is a severe shortage of medical staff across Malawi

First Minister Jack McConnell announced the move on the penultimate day of his five day tour of the African country.

Up to 10 NHS staff a year will have their pensions paid by the Scottish Executive while they are away from their main job on two-year placements.

The aim is to encourage medical workers to help deal with Malawi's health problems caused by Aids and poverty.

The first volunteers, working for the volunteer-based international development charity Voluntary Service Overseas, are expected to be in Malawi by early next year.

Scottish volunteers are saving lives here in Malawi and this scheme will make that choice easier for others in future Jack McConnell First Minister

Mr McConnell made the announcement at the Nkhoma Nurse Training Centre on Thursday, where he met three current Scottish volunteers.

He said: "We are removing barriers to volunteering at home, but we also need to help those who want to help others abroad.

"Scottish volunteers are saving lives here in Malawi and this scheme will make that choice easier for others in future."

The Nkhoma Hospital, to which the nursing school is attached, has just three doctors, no anaesthesiologist and a severe shortage of nurses.

VSO volunteers have been sent to the nursing school in response to a shortfall in clinical instructors and are involved in the training of general and specialist nurses - particularly midwives - as the hospital performs between 1,500 and 2,000 deliveries a year.

First Minister Jack McConnell is on the fourth day of his Malawi tour

On the whole, the country has just 1.6 doctors per 100,000 people and 28.6 nurses per 100,000 in its 12 million population.

The charity's chief executive, Mark Goldring, backed the move, which represents the first scheme of its kind in the UK.

He said: "It is really positive that we have found a way of working together to offer professional skills from Scotland to improve health care in Malawi.

"At a time when many institutions in the UK are more interested in bringing much-needed medical staff out of Africa to meet UK needs, it is great that the executive is forward-looking in building partnerships to serve some of the world's poorest and least well-served people."

HIV and Aids have contributed to a life expectancy rate in Malawi of just 37 years.

Current estimates suggest that up to a million people in the country suffer from HIV and Aids - a twelfth of the population.

Final engagements

Before his visit to the nursing centre, the first minister travelled to Linthipe Feeding Station in the nation's capital, Lilongwe.

Run by a Scotland-based charity, the Child Support Project, it offers food to under-fives, rudimentary health care and support for Aids orphans.

The charity was set up by Malawian Dr Josephine Muntili, who now lives in Edinburgh, and offers care to 39 nearby villages.

He was concluding his engagements by hosting a Scotland and Malawi reception in the British High Commission residency in the capital.