May 3 (Bloomberg) -- The Asian Development Bank said donor countries pledged loans of $11.3 billion over the next four years to fund infrastructure spending and fight poverty in the region's poorest countries.

The replenishment to the Asian Development Fund, or ADF, is a 60 percent increase from the previous period, when donors contributed $7 billion in low-interest loans and grants between 2005 and 2008, the lender said in a statement. The funds are available for distribution between 2009 and 2012.

``With child malnutrition still widespread in Asia, and the global food crisis threatening to reverse the gains nations have achieved in reducing poverty, support for rural infrastructure and rural finance is critically important,'' ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda said.

Crude oil has risen more than 80 percent, and rice prices have more than doubled since the last Asian Development Bank meeting a year ago in Kyoto, Japan. The increases have stoked social tensions and led to wider fiscal deficits as governments subsidize food and energy costs for their people.

The ADB was formed in 1966 to improve the welfare of people in Asia and the Pacific. Two-thirds of the world's poor reside in the region, and about 600 million Asians survive on less than $1 a day.

The ADB has 67 member countries, both from within and outside of the region. The members meet in Madrid between May 3 and May 6.

To contact the reporter on this story: Shamim Adam in Madrid sadam2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 3, 2008 05:25 EDT