"The board of the bank approved the credit and grant on July 29 totalling US$150 million, broken down into a grant component of US$90 million (N$540 million) and a credit of US$60 million (N$360 million)," Philip Mpango, a senior economist at the World Bank said.

"This is direct budget support to help implement the government's poverty eradication strategy."

A Tanzanian government official said the money would be spent under the country's Second Poverty Reduction Support Credit (PRSC-2), which will be launched in October.

"We will focus mainly on three areas, growth (Gross Domestic Product) and reduction of poverty, secondly, improved quality of life and social wellbeing and thirdly, governance and accountability," Servacius Likwelile, director of the Poverty Eradication in the Vice President's Office said.

Tanzania relies heavily on foreign loans, grants and debt relief with 41 percent of its 2004/2005 budget, or 1.367 trillion shillings (US$1,24 billion, N$7,44 billion) coming from foreign funds, up from 1,175 trillion in 2003/04.

Last month, the World Bank gave the east African country a total of US$193,8 million (N$1,2 billion) in other loans and grants to develop secondary education and to help the government to meet the cost of power generation.

-Nampa-Reuters

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