LONDON, July 6 (Xinhuanet) -- The rich Western countries spend up to 25 times more on defense than they do on overseas aid and their aid to the sub-Saharan Africa rose merely three US dollars per capita since 1990, the Guardian newspaper reported Wednesday.

    The paper quoted a United Nations human development report to be unveiled later this year as saying that the United States and Britain are the countries with the biggest disparities between their defense spending and aid to the poor countries.

    In the United States, one percent of its budget goes to overseas aid against 25 percent on defense, while in Britain the ratio is one to eight, the UN data shows.

    Defense spending in both the United States and Britain has increased in recent years as a result of war in Iraq, taking the total defense spending in the G7 nations -- the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada -- to more than 660 billion dollars a year.

    The figure is 10 times of these countries' aid to Africa, Latin America, Asia and some East European countries.

    The UN report also said that since 1990, per capita income increases in the seven countries averaged 5,770 dollars, with the United States enjoying a per capita income rise from more than 30,000 dollars to 37,500 dollars a year.

    In comparison, the G7 countries' aid to the sub-Saharan countries has risen only three dollars over the same period to 16 dollars in 2003. Enditem