David Cameron has hit out at a UK Independence Party MEP who said Britain should not send aid to "bongo bongo land".
The Prime Minister branded the comments by Godfrey Bloom "offensive", and insisted helping other countries was in the national interest.
Mr Bloom issued a grudging apology "for any genuine offence caused" yesterday after being rebuked by the party leadership for his language.
A video of a speech he delivered to activists last month showed him saying: "How we can possibly be giving a billion pounds a month, when we're in this sort of debt, to bongo bongo land is completely beyond me.
"To buy Ray-Ban sunglasses, apartments in Paris, Ferraris and all the rest of it that goes with most of the foreign aid. F18s for Pakistan. We need a new squadron of F18s. Who's got the squadrons? Pakistan, where we send the money."
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Mr Cameron mounted a robust defence of aid spending.
"I think it is an offensive remark anyway, but what I think is wrong is this sort of 'stop the world, I want to get off' approach just doesn't work," he said.
"Britain is a very open international country. The problems elsewhere come and visit us. So it makes sense I think to have an overseas aid programme that helps solve these problems at source."