BC DEVELOPMENT AID / EU says largest aid donor, but U.S. gets credit

BRUSSELS, April 18 (Reuter) The European Union provided two thirds of world humanitarian aid in 1994 but most people believe the United States is more generous, Aid Commissioner Emma Bonino said on Tuesday.

Rwanda, Burundi, Sierra Leone and Liberia were among major beneficiaries of international humanitarian aid totalling more than 3.5 billion Ecus in 1994

"The U.S. with its remarkable public relations is everywhere...the EU is nowhere to be seen," Bonino told the European Parliaments's development committee.

Bonino said she was irritated by criticism from some aid

organisations and politicians that the Commission was trying too hard to make its aid more visible.

"There's more than a touch of hypocrisy in that," she said, adding that the operations of independent aid organisations were often financed by the EU.

Bonino warned that the tremendous growth in EU aid was in danger of creating political problems as people grew tired of aiding poor countries.

Aid provided by the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) has surged to 764 million Ecus in 1994, from five million Ecus, over the past 20 years.

But in 1995 the EU aid budget was facing a shortfall of 185 million Ecus compared with last year, Bonino warned.

Some $500 million was needed to maintain aid for the people of Rwanda and Burundi and needs would rise due to the deteriorating situation in the refugee camps of the Great Lakes, Bonino added.