Washington, April 23:

The president of the World Bank (WB), Paul Wolfowitz, said he had secured the necessary votes from bank governors to approve $37 million in debt relief to 17 poor countries, most of them in Africa.

“Countries will now be able to put more resources into programs that directly help those who need it most- the poor who need better education, better health services and great access

to clean water, for example,” he said.

Wolfowitz said he needed approval from two-thirds of the members of the 184 nation organisation so that the International Development Association, the arm of the bank that makes low interest rate loans, can begin debt relief from July 1.

The 17 countries that will benefit from relief, worth close to $1 billion a year over 40 years, are Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Honduras, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

Donor countries have agreed to a financing package to keep IDA in business since it no longer will have income from loan repayments by poor countries, the bank said.

Religious groups, development agencies and the rock star Bono were among those pressing the major industrialised countries to get the bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to forgive poor countries’ debts.