JEDDAH, April 22: The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has approved 661 million dollars in loans and aid for development projects in member states and for Muslims around the world, the bank said on Tuesday.

The aid, approved by the executive officers’ council, includes a grant of two million dollars’ urgent relief to Iraq, a statement by the bank said.

IDB said Iran would get a 46.6 million dollar loan to finance the second phase of a power plant, while Lebanon was to receive 37.5 million dollars to finance infrastructure projects in Beirut.

Indonesia was to get 31 million dollars for a university expansion plan and Qatar 24 million dollars to finance a soyabean scheme.

IDB also approved a 22.5 million dollar loan to Guinea for an educational programme and diesel generators, and a 22.7 million dollar loan to Morocco to finance a sewage project.

The bank approved credit facilities for several countries to finance the purchase of crude oil and products. These included 100 million dollars to Malaysia, 70 million dollars to Pakistan, 65 million dollars each to Bangladesh and Morocco, 56 million for Indonesia and 25 million dollars for Lebanon.

Tunisia would get 50 million dollars to purchase wheat and barley and Turkey 15 million dollars to buy scrap steel.

IDB approved two soft loans worth 12 million dollars to the Palestinian Authority to rebuild houses damaged by Israeli troops and rehabilitate infrastructure projects.

The bank, an arm of the Organisation for the Islamic Conference based in Jeddah, recently announced it had loaned around 24 billion dollars to its 54 member countries since 1976, one year after it was founded.

It gives favourable low-interest loans to Islamic countries to help with development and economic difficulties, and has a capitalization of nine billion dollars.—AFP