The board broadly agreed on Tuesday that the bank should continue investing in extractive industries, like oil, to give developing nations their best chance to reduce poverty.

But the board did agree to increase substantially its investment in renewable energy and to strengthen policies to guard against the theft of revenue by corrupt government officials and others.

The review of investment strategy in the oil, gas and mining sectors grew out of a fierce debate over whether the development of those industries could consistently help countries alleviate chronic poverty or would instead fuel a devastating cycle of corruption and conflict.

The World Bank and International Finance Corp., its private- sector lending arm, finance $500 million to $600 million a year in projects involving mining, about 3 percent of the group's lending.

The board's decision came at a daylong meeting in Washington after a three-year evaluation process. In 2001, the bank commissioned Emil Salim, a former environment minister in Indonesia, to advise it on the direction of its energy investment. The board laid out its broad response to the proposals on Tuesday but will give a final report after the banks' managers refine it.

The bank rejected Salim's proposals that it get out of the oil and coal industries, and it stopped short of fully embracing his ideas on how to combat corruption and protect indigenous peoples. But in their meeting on Tuesday, bank executives said they had committed themselves to achieve the same objectives.