Washington, May 21 (IANS): The World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will make a joint visit to Africa's Great Lakes region, a World Bank statement said Monday.

The visit is to be undertaken in support of a landmark peace agreement and to push for economic development in the troubled region.

"The visit will draw attention to the plight of fragile and conflict-affected countries struggling to meet the Millennium Development Goals.

"It will highlight the commitment of the two international organisations to jointly tackle global conflict and poverty," reported Xinhua citing the statement.

Kim and Ban will travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from May 22-23, Rwanda from May 23-24, and Uganda May 24.

Their trip follows a ground-breaking agreement signed in February by 11 African nations to end conflict in the DRC and bring peace to the Great Lakes region.

Kim and Ban will meet with the DRC leaders and government officials and discuss how the UN and the World Bank can best support the agreement.

The African Great Lakes are a series of lakes constituting the part of the Rift Valley lakes in and around the East African Rift.

The African Great Lake region is used in a narrow sense for the area lying between northern Lake Tanganyika, western Lake Victoria, and lakes Kivu, Edward and Albert. It comprises Burundi, Rwanda, north-eastern DR Congo,Uganda and north-western Kenya and Tanzania.