Ottawa has named 25 of the world's poorest countries as targets for Canadian aid in its foreign policy review tabled on Tuesday.

That number is down from about 30 countries which have been receiving our aid dollars up to now, reports The Globe and Mail.

Critics point out that this means Ottawa is even further from fulfilling its promise to donate 0.7 per cent of the country's GDP to help eradicate poverty in the world within 10 years.

The money for aid comes from Canada's bilateral fund, which is the country's largest assistance program.

Currently, about 150 countries qualify for money under criteria adopted by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

But the actual number of countries getting government-to-government assistance from Canada is only about 30, said Gerry Barr, president of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation, in today's Globe.

Reaching the 0.7-per-cent benchmark has been a promise made by past Liberal and Conservative governments for more than 40 years, but no government has ever come close.

Ottawa's current foreign-aid level is about 0.28 per cent of GDP.

The aid announcement was one of the highlights of the government's foreign policy review, which provides the blueprint for a number of government departments.

In an introduction to the review, Prime Minister Paul Martin wrote:

"We have concluded that the government's aid budget is spread too thinly across too many programs in more than 150 countries."

At a news conference following the release of the report, International Cooperation Minister Aileen Carroll called the poverty ravaging many parts of the world today an offense to our "basic values of decency and fairness. And it compels a strong Canadian response."

"The task in front of us is clear," she said. "We need smarter and better aid."

The key sectors the aid program would focus on are:

• basic education;
• health issues such as HIV/AIDS;
• developing the private sector; and
• environmental sustainability.

The report said that by 2010, at least two-thirds of Canada's government-to-government assistance would be focused on 25 developing countries.

Those countries were chosen because they are among the poorest in the world and have proven they could use the aid effectively.

But International Cooperation Critic Ted Menzies said he had issues over some of the countries the government has selected for aid, as well as the countries they left out.

"I have to conclude that this Liberal government has no credibility on foreign aid," the Conservative MP told reporters at a news conference following the Liberals' announcement.

He complained that Ottawa's plan excludes Haiti, Sudan, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

"These countries must now compete to qualify for CIDA's funds left over after it helps all the easy wins in countries that are solidly on their way towards prosperity."

The NDP, meanwhile, called the government's plan a "huge disappointment."

The international development critic for the New Democrats, Bev Desjarlais, said Canadians continue to be "embarrassed" by Liberal governments that brake promises to increase our foreign- aid to 0.7 per cent of our GDP.

"At the current rate it will be 2035 before we reach 0.7 per cent," she said in a statement.

More than half of the countries targetted for aid assistance are in Africa, with the rest in Asia and the Americas, and one in Europe.

The countries are:

In Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Zambia.

Other: Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cambodia, Guyana, Honduras, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, and Vietnam.

The remaining one-third of Canada's aid money will go to so-called "fragile" states such as Afghanistan, Sudan and Haiti.

With files from The Canadian Press