Australia has announced a sweeping overhaul of its foreign aid programme.
Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said on Wednesday the government will accept all but one of the recommendations of a major independent review of foreign aid.
This includes doubling the AusAID cooperation programme with non-government organisations and increasing the reliance on volunteers.
Mr Rudd says the federal government will continue to direct about 75% of the budget to nearby countries, including Papua New Guinea and East Timor, and 11% will go to Africa, the ABC reports.
He is promising that Australia will phase out direct aid to India and China and impose tougher mechanisms to make sure that aid money is not wasted.
The Australian government spends about $A5 billion a year on aid but that is expected to jump to more than $A8 billion by 2016.
It has been plagued by persistent allegations that foreign aid fraud has been ballooning, along with the aid budget.
