EAST Lancashire Euro MP Chris Davies has attacked EU governments he claims are blocking a £1billion fund that could be used to bring fresh water and sanitation to millions of the world's poor.

The European Commission has identified hundreds of projects in Africa that could proceed rapidly if start-up finance is provided. And it has already pledged to halve the amount of people without safe drinking water - currently 1.1billion - by 2015.

But the politician says governments are blocking the release of the huge "Water for Life" fund because they want to see detailed plans for individual projects before releasing the cash.

Mr Davies said: "Britain has failed to take any leadership in this matter and although working groups have been set up and initiatives developed on paper, more than one year on not a single new project is actually under way.

"Every week of delay makes the task more enormous and makes the grand gestures of EU governments a year ago look more shallow."

He added: "It is a betrayal of pledges made by governments just a year ago to the poorest people on the planet. If EU member states genuinely want to meet the water and sanitation commitments they should release the money while insisting that the commission makes more reforms to improve its performance."