June 9, 2002	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 27,1423

PARIS, June 8: The World Bank on Saturday announced additional grants for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, bringing its total support for the first year of reconstruction to 100 million dollars.

The institution also issued an appeal to the international community to fulfil its pledges of financial support.

At a donors conference in Tokyo in January, the World Bank initially envisaged an amount ranging between 50 million and 70 million dollars was needed for the first year.

An additional 500 million dollars was pledged over the two subsequent years, coinciding with the planned duration of the transitional government due to be established by the Loya Jirga next week.

The latest World Bank grants concern three development projects in Afghanistan, which, says Country director Alastair McKechnie, “are aligned fully with the development vision of the Afghanistan interim administration”.

The grants are for an “emergency education rehabilitaion development project” (worth 15 million dollars), an “emergency community empowerment and public works project (42 million dollars) and an “emergency infrastructure reconstruction project” (33 million dollars).