Irish business is missing out on multi-million pound contracts in international development through ignorance of the opportunities available, according to the World Bank.

Ireland's share of World Bank contracts is significantly lower than the share of capital it contributes to the bank, according to the bank's representative for Ireland, Mr Jean-Francois Rischard. Countries that are "engaged" in the bank's activities tend to win a share of contracts that is a multiple of the capital they invest, he said.

Mr Rischard was speaking in Dublin following a meeting with the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy. He also met the chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs, Mr Des O'Malley, as well as representatives of NGO and debt relief groups.

Currently, Ireland contributes 0.34 per cent of the World Bank's capital. However, its share of contracts is only 0.21 per cent. Though the percentages are small, the amounts of money involved are massive - up to $350 million a year.

"Irish enterprises should be more involved in offering goods and services under our loans," Mr Rischard said.

Ireland is one of the countries in which the bank is currently trying to develop an enterprise outreach service to encourage more involvement by business in its activities. It has urged the Department of Finance to put a liaison structure in place to inform the private sector about business prospects in the area.

On debt relief, Mr Rischard said the World Bank had now made a decision on relief for 22 of the world's poorest countries. Some 41 countries had been judged eligible for debt relief.

In those 22 countries, the cost of servicing debt had gone down by $1.1 billion, and social spending had increased by $1.7 billion. However, Mr Rischard said there were difficulties in extending relief to more countries, as many of these, such as Sierre Leone or the Democratic Republic of Congo, were in conflict.