Korea will set up an aid fund worth US$1 million to support development projects in five Southeast Asian countries, a foreign ministry official said Saturday.

The fund, the amount of which will be gradually increased, will be run separately from South Korea's bilateral official development assistance to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, he said.

The official said the deal was reached in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Tuesday when South Korean foreign minister met with his counterparts from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.

South Korea hosted the inaugural Korea-Mekong foreign ministers' meeting in 2011, a year after President Lee Myung-bak proposed the meeting at the Association of South East Asia Nations summit.

The five Asian countries are all located near the Mekong River.

At the Cambodia meeting, the member countries agreed to run pilot projects related to infrastructure, IT technology and green growth.

Thailand is scheduled to host the first Korea-Mekong business forum next year, the official said.(Yonhap)