Dhaka, May 22 :

The Bangladesh prime minister heads to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) this week for talks aimed at getting cheaper oil supplies to help the impoveris-hed country’s economy, an official said today.

Prime Minister Khaleda Zia leaves for the UAE tomorrow and will raise the possibility of getting cheaper oil — either at a discount or on credit — during her talks with president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahayan, a foreign ministry official said. “I expect this will come up during the discussion and if it does we will discuss how the UAE government can help us in terms of providing supply of petroleum products at a concessionary rate and easy terms,” foreign secretary Hemayet Uddin said.

It will be the second visit to a major-oil exporting Gulf country by Zia, in search of cheap oil, this month. She made a state visit to Kuwait, earlier in May.

Bangladesh is desperately see-king cheaper sources of oil after spiralling prices in the world ma-rket pushed its expected fuel subsidy bill to $600 million in the fiscal year ending in June. Finance Minister described high oil pri-ces the ‘most formidable challe-nge’ for the Bangladesh economy.