Berlin - Germany has become the world's second biggest aid donor after the United States, the ministry of economic assistance said, quoting statistics released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and development (OECD) on Friday.

Germany's official development assistance for 2007 amounted to 12.26 billion dollars, an increase of 5.9 per cent from 2006 when Germany was in fifth place on this list of aid donors.

Germany spent 0.37 per cent of its gross domestic product (gdp) on development, well below the government's target of increasing aid to 0.51 per cent of gdp by 2010.

Overall, most donors are not on track to meet their stated commitments to scale up aid and will need to make unprecedented increases to meet the targets they have set for 2010, the OECD report said.

The 22 member countries of the OECD Development Assistance Committee, the world's major donors, provided 103.7 billion dollars in aid in 2007, slightly less than 2006. (dpa)