Russia signed an agreement with the World Bank and the World Health Organization on Friday night on the allocation of 20 million dollars for fighting malaria in Africa. On the part of Russia, the agreement was signed by Vice-Premier and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin who heads a Russian delegation at the annual meetings of managers of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund that are being held in Washington this weekend. "Russia increases its contribution to development, especially the fight with infectious diseases, education and access to energy," Alexei Kudrin said. A total of 15 million dollars of the funds allocated Russia will be used to fight with malaria in Mozambique and Zambia, another four million dollars to train personnel in these countries, and one million dollars to train Russian cadres for development purposes within this initiative. "We welcome Russia’s striving to fight with this mortal disease, as well as new steps of Russia as a new donor of international development. The World Bank is ready to immediately begin working with Russia to create new additional programme that will be useful for poor and vulnerable sections of the population," President of the World Bank Robert Zellik said.