DAMASCUS - The European Union on Tuesday granted 80 million euros (99 million dollars) for development projects in Syria as part of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership process, the EU delegation here said Tuesday.
Frank Hesske, head of the delegation in Syria, and Abdallah Dardari, president of the Syrian state office for planning, signed an agreement on the grant for the period 2004-2005, it said in a statement.
The grant was for the development of the commerce, water, higher education and civil society sectors, it said.
About 18 million euros of the grant would await the signing of an EU-Syrian association agreement, which is due to be initialed on October 19 in Brussels, it said.
The programme aims to "help the Syrian government to pursue the process of modernising" its economy, Hesske said.
The European Union already granted Syria a total of 93 million euros between 2002 and 2004 for the modernisation of the country's economic and industrial sectors.
Syria is the only Mediterranean country in the EU's "Barcelona process" - launched in 1995 with the aim of bolstering trade and political ties in the region - not to have concluded an association agreement.
The issue of the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction has until now blocked a final accord.
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