Appreciating India's initiatives in containing spread of AIDS, vice president and corporate secretary of the World Bank Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the World Bank is working closely with New Delhi to further improve the health scenario in the country.

"We are working closely with the Indian government and though more could be done, we are working in partnership with India to create awareness about the problem," Nogzi said.

She said much of the World Bank's allocations in the developing world were in social sectors and insisted that "in South Asia our focus has been primary education, provision of drinking water to all and primary health care".

Nogzi, along with secretary of the International Monetary Fund Shailendra J Anjaria, briefed reporters about the forthcoming 58th annual meeting of the boards of governors of the World Bank group and the IMF in Dubai on September 23 and 24.

The meeting will be the first ever held in any middle-east country and a $ 210 million-Dubai international convention center, with the facility to seat 4,500 delegates is being readied in Dubai.

The two officials were in Dubai to oversee the preparations and hold high-level talks with the UAE Central Bank governor about the meeting at the new premises close to the World Trade Centre in Dubai.