United Nations: India has asked the rich nations to fulfil their commitment of providing assistance to poor countries to enable them to meet the goals of reducing poverty and hunger by half by 2015.

Addressing the 191-member United Nations General Assembly on the occasion of tenth anniversary of International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed regretted that the "international assistance promised at the meet to the poor nations have fallen short of the commitments".

Pointing out that rate of population growth over the past decade has been higher in the poorer nations with four out of every five persons living in the less developed regions, he said the emphasis on sustained economic growth and sustainable development has become "extremely relevant".

Ahamed expressed strong support for the ICPD's plan of actions, which calls for raising the quality of life of human beings and promoting human development. He said the nations at ICPD conference, held in Cairo, had agreed to forge a balance among population, sustained economic growth and sustainable development. "The balance was based on the premises that actions by Government of developing nations would be matched by assistance for donor community. But the international assistance and support that was to be provided to the developing countries has fallen short," Ahamed said appealing to the rich nations to fulfil their pledges.