Libya offering billions in loans

Libya has handed out more than $2 billion US in loans to dozens of governments across the globe, according to an internal document that shows the oil exporter's diplomatic ambitions and its struggles to recover its debts.
Libya's foreign lending also shines a light on its attempts, before it emerged from decades of international isolation six years ago, to goad Washington by lending to U.S. foes such as Nicaragua, Cuba and the former Yugoslavia.
"This was a period when . (Libyan leader Moammar) Gadhafi was looking for anything that could upset the apple cart," said Dirk Vandewalle, a Libya scholar at Dartmouth College in the U.S.
The document, drafted by Libya's foreign ministry and presented to the Peoples Congresses, or grassroots lawmaking bodies, says Libya has provided loans to around 40 countries worth a total of $2.197 billion.
As of the end of 2009, Libya had been paid back $1.302 billion, leaving an outstanding balance, when interest is included, of $3.231 billion, it said.
The biggest debtor mentioned in the document is Libya's neighbour Sudan with an outstanding balance of $1.287 billion, part of Sudan's debilitating external debt of almost $40 billion.
"We are seeking to have (all of Sudan's) . loans forgiven because we believe that both governments, the Government of Sudan and the would-be Government of South Sudan, would not be in a position to repay these loans in the near future," Marial Awour, Libya's junior minister of finance, said.
Sudan's south is on course to secede from the mainly Muslim north after a referendum on independence.
Other big debtors are Ethiopia, which owes $249 million and Mozambique, with $211 million to pay back, according to a copy of the document obtained by Reuters.
It lists 15 countries which have paid back none of their loans and another 10 -including Nicaragua and Cuba -which it said started repaying the loans but then stopped. Many of the loans are interest-free, especially those to African and Arab countries.
The document, which does not detail when the loans were made, lists credit provided to Poland, Hungary, the former Yugoslavia, Pakistan, Cuba and Nicaragua.