SYDNEY, July 3, 2009 (AFP) - Australia on Friday pledged almost 200 million dollars (155 million US) to projects in remote Aboriginal communities, one day after releasing a damning report on the minority's grim living conditions.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd signed off on the 195 million dollar East Kimberley development package, which is designed to boost health, education, housing and transport in the remote west coast region.

"This investment promotes sustainable regional development, providing social infrastructure," Rudd said.

"It will also provide training and productive employment opportunities for indigenous communities in the region."

The announcement comes one day after the centre-left leader vowed "decisive action" on a report which showed conditions for Aborigines were worsening, with 35 in every 1,000 children suffering abuse or neglect.

Murder rates were seven times higher in the Aboriginal community, with hospitalisations from domestic violence 34 times higher and Aborigines 13 times more likely to be imprisoned.

Rudd's government last year delivered an historic apology to the nation's original inhabitants for abuses suffered since the time of white settlement in 1788.

He committed to halving the gaps in infant mortality, overall life expectancy, literacy rates and school completion rates within 10 years.

But the conservative opposition party has accused Rudd of achieving little, and called for a military and police intervention in the desert communities of the Northern Territory to be expanded into the Kimberley and other western regions.

"(Rudd) said these results are devastating and that is right... it seems that nothing has been achieved," said Julie Bishop, opposition spokeswoman for Aboriginal affairs.

"I would like to see the intervention moved into WA as well. There are some drastic circumstances for indigenous people in the north of Western Australia."

Aborigines account for 2.5 percent of the 21 million population, and are Australia's most impoverished minority, with a lifespan 17 years shorter than the national average.