India on Friday announced additional assistance to Least Developed Countries which included establishment of a special fund of five million dollars and a 500 million dollar credit line for developmental projects, strengthening its commitment to aid these nations. Terming as clearly unacceptable the pace of progress in LDCs in changing their country status, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said, that the number of Least Developed Countries has almost doubled from 25 in 1970 to 48 in 2011. Only three countries have so far graduated out of their LDC status. Apart from announcement of financial aid including the setting up of a special fund of USD five million over the next five years for the follow-up for the LDC Fourth UN conference to be held in Istanbul in May, India also announced another five scholarships every year under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme (ITECP) for each LDC. Mr. Krishna said over the decades, the foreign direct investment from India to LDC countries has increased dramatically, and is estimated to be around 35 billion dollars. New Delhi has provided 4.3 billion dollars lines of credit to LDCs as well to these countries.Earlier, a delegation of leaders from LDCs called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Apart from LDCs, Finland, Australia, Slovenia, China, Hungary, Croatia, Georgia, European Union, the US, Germany and Hungary will also attend the meeting as observers. AIR correspondent reports that the objective of the Conference is to provide inputs to the Fourth UN-LDC Conference, which is expecting an ambitious outcome, one which would allow at least 50 per cent of the countries to reach the threshold of graduation by 2020. The meeting will also provide an opportunity for India to explore the untapped opportunities of South-South cooperation which can contribute significantly to the sustained development of LDCs.