United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday that development aid would have to increase to 18 billion dollars a year if the world was to remain on track to achieving a set of anti-poverty goals by 2015, DPA reported. Countries have committed to eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, and Ban's comments came ahead of a high-level meeting on stepping up global efforts to reach the MDGs in New York on September 25. Ban said Thursday's assessment report entitled, Delivering on the Global Partnership for Achieving the Millennium Development Goals, sounded "a strong alarm."