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BRUSSELS, Feb 28 (Reuters) - The European Union's executive urged the 27 member states on Wednesday to coordinate better among themselves in foreign aid projects to avoid duplication that is often depriving needy countries of assistance.

OECD figures show EU countries provided about $56 billion of aid in 2005, twice as much as the United States. The European Commission added $9.4 billion to the total.

EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel commended the bloc for increasing aid to 0.42 percent of gross national income this year and for being on course to reach an internationally agreed target of 0.56 percent by 2010.

"But it's also a question of making it better and more effective," Michel, unveiling proposals for closer coordination of national aid projects, told a news conference.

Michel said there was a tendency for donors to focus aid on the more promising developing countries, turning the most needy countries into "aid orphans" with few or no benefactors.

"Too many donors are concentrating on the same countries and the same sector," his proposal said, pointing to Mozambique where more than 25 donors are fighting AIDS while Somalia and the Central African Republic are left almost to themselves.

The European Commission wants each EU state to focus on two areas in each country it helps, re-allocating remaining money to projects led by other donors or grants for the countries.

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