Most nations 'failing to meet' Millennium Goals

Most countries will fall short of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of eight globally agreed objectives with a target 2015 date to aid development, a new World Bank-International Monetary Fund (IMF) report has warned.

While much of the world is set to cut extreme poverty in half by that time, prospects are most dim for the goals to reduce child and maternal mortality, with serious shortfalls also likely in primary school completion, nutrition, and sanitation goals, the report said.

"In this Year of Action on the MDGs, I am particularly concerned about the risks of failing to meet the goal of reducing hunger and malnutrition, the 'forgotten MDG'," said, World Bank president Robert Zoellick.