WASHINGTON (AP) — A key Senate panel has approved $675 million in aid to Central American countries to improve conditions in the poorest and most violent regions of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala that sparked a crisis of unaccompanied children fleeing to the U.S. last year.

The funding amounts to $125 million more than current funding but is still far less than the president's $1 billion request.

The money is part of a $49 billion foreign aid bill approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee on a bipartisan 27-3 vote.