LONDON, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown wrote an article setting out objectives for tacking global poverty as a draft bill is published on Friday which legally commits the British government to providing overseas aid.

    In his piece, published in the leading newspaper The Independent, Brown made specific reference to the current humanitarian crisis in Haiti following the earthquake, and said that the global community must rally to help those in need.

    He said: "Where men and women and children are suffering under the heaviest of burdens, that place must for that moment become the center of our world's attention, the world's compassion and the world's humanitarian help."

    In addition, Brown said: "Our resolve and our mission must be both to deliver past pledges and pursue new ways to answer climate change and overcome the economic constraints that could imprison hundreds of millions in permanent poverty and despair."

    The draft Overseas Development Assistance Bill, published by the Department for International Development on Friday, made Britain the first country in the world to give a permanent guarantee to reach the UN's aid target. The British government must commit 0.7 percent of national income to overseas aid from 2013.

    In his article, Brown stressed that the government must find new and innovative sources of finance to fight poverty and climate change.

    He said: "while the climate crisis has been slow to build, the effects of the financial storm have been sudden and severe. Without diminishing the suffering the global recession has caused many families in the well-off world, there should be no doubt that in poorer countries it has been the grim difference between life and death."

    The International Monetary Fund is looking at how the financial sector can contribute more towards paying for the burdens of government intervention, including a global financial transactions tax which could raise substantial revenues if the details can be addressed.

    Brown also said that developing countries must invest in the future themselves, particularly through education, giving people skills and stimulating growth.