MADRID (AFP) - The Asian Development Bank will provide 500 million dollars (320 million euros) in immediate assistance to member nations hit hardest by soaring food prices, the head of the bank announced Tuesday. "I am pleased to announce that ADB will provide 500 million dollars as immediate budgetary support to the hardest hit countries so that they can bring food to the tables of the vulnerable, poor and needy," ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda said. "This money will be made available to cushion the impact of rising fiscal burden due to rising food prices," he told a news conference at the end of a four-day ADB meeting in Madrid. "We will also double our lending to Agricultural and Natural Resources, including rural infrastructure, to over 2.0b dollars over the next one year."