Britain and its EU partners are poised to fill some of the gap created by President George Bush's decision to end US payments to international family planning organisations which provide abortion services.

This year's funding is unaffected, but later the UN Population Fund and the International Planned Parenthood Federation are likely to suffer badly, and many other organisations will also be affected.

About 80,000 women die annually from unsafe abortions. EC sources said the commission, the world's biggest overseas aid provider, could not provide core funding but could support individual projects.

Clare Short, the international development secretary, is due to discuss the matter with the EU commissioner for development, Poul Nielson, in London this week.

Ms Short, one of an informal quartet of like-minded female EU development ministers, is anxious for Britain to play active role in global population policy, but officials stressed that she wanted to avoid a row with Washington.

Her Dutch colleague, Eveline Herfkens, has also urged a "quick and strong" European response to President Bush's cuts.

Brussels already gives family planning organisations €47m (£30m), mostly for contraception and educational work in Asia.

• The US secretary of state, Colin Powell, said on ABC television's This Week that his personal views on the issue differed from the White House's, but he added: "This is the policy of the government."