WASHINGTON, April 12: The World Bank on Thursday offered new loans of up to 100 million dollars to help Afghanistan’s interim leadership meet urgent budget needs.

The lending agency said it was impressed with the temporary administration’s first budget, presented in Kabul on Wednesday.

“It is this vision, in the context of a remarkably disciplined set of budgets ... that gives me the confidence to make this offer,” said Mieko Nishimizu, the bank’s vice president for South Asia.

She praised the budget plan as a historic document that represented “development with soul” and said “many nations could take a lesson” from it.

The Washington-based bank also called on other donors to help the leadership of Hamid Karzai meet pressing needs such as paying doctors and teachers.—dpa