World Bank president Mr James Wolfensohn yesterday launched a plan to cope with one of the world's most urgent problems, the fact that 125 million children do not go to school, two thirds of them girls.

The goal of the plan is to have all children in school by the year 2015, he told a press conference held jointly with ministers from Canada, the UK, the Netherlands and Norway, and Oxfam.

"A total of $2.5 billion (€2.8 billion) external financing is required for the bottom 47 countries - if not another generation will be lost because they did not see the inside of a classroom," said Netherlands Development Cooperation Minister Ms Eveline Herfkens.

Her country was prepared to donate € 135 million to tackle a problem exacerbated by the prospect that one in 10 teachers in Africa would die of AIDS in the next decade, she said.

The World Bank estimates that 88 countries will not achieve universal primary education by 2015 without the new development compact for children.

UK Chancellor Mr Gordon Brown called the World Bank initiative a "major breakthrough" that would be different from earlier projects in that it was rooted in a compact between the developed and the developing world to "lift 125 million children out of hopelessness".

The importance of the initiative was also underlined by Canadian Finance Minister, Mr Paul Martin, to meet the targets set two years ago at the World Education Forum in Senegal of universal education by 2015.

All the ministers emphasised the importance of eliminating user fees. In Tanzania, when school fees were abolished, attendance doubled almost immediately.

Urgent help was needed to ensure that the country's bold step was supported. Oxfam's representative Mr Phil Twyford said the project was the best chance in a generation for an end to the inertia which had marked earlier attempts.

The British-based development organisation is heavily involved in the education compact, marking a closer cooperation between the World Bank and the development community.

The US was conspicuous by its absence at the press conference, Mr Twyford said.

"President Bush as education president should not be missing in action." Mr Twyford called on the World Bank development committee to raise $1 billion immediately to launch the project.