International donors approved a $515 million aid package for Macedonia today, more than double the amount expected, to help it recover from last year's fighting between government forces and ethnic Albanian rebels.
The meeting was organised to reward authorities in the tiny ex-Yugoslav republic and ethnic Albanian leaders for respecting a peace deal reached last August to end seven months of violence.
Donor funding of about $274 million was pledged at the meeting for macroeconomic assistance for support of reconstruction and implementation of the framework agreement, the European Commission and the World Bank said in a statement.
In addition, donors indicated another $241 million of donor assistance for general economic development purposes in 2002, they said. The Commission and the World Bank chaired the day-long conference of 38 countries and 19 organisations.
The aid scheme is to help Macedonia rein in its ballooning budget deficit and huge current account gap and rebuild damaged homes and infrastructure, as well as to create the institutions needed to maintain a multi-ethnic democracy.