
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 11, 1990                   TAG: 9004110133
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

U.S. ROLE ASSURED IN EAST EUROPE BANK

U.S. participation in an international development bank for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe is now assured because of limits put on Soviet borrowing, the Treasury said Tuesday.

The agreement among 42 countries to create the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development was announced Monday in Paris. Officials said it will be signed May 30.

For three years the Soviet Union will be allowed to borrow only as much as it pays in, or about $216 million, Treasury spokesman Robert Levine said. The Soviets will contribute 6 percent of the bank's $12 billion capital.

The United States will have the largest share, 10 percent. The member countries of the European Economic Community will have 51 percent among them.

Officials hope it can start making loans by the end of this year.

Levine said the bank's charter will require borrowers to be moving toward democracy, a provision the United States wanted and the Soviets opposed. Borrowers also must allocate 60 percent of the loans to the private sector, he said. - Associated Press

by CNB