MAPUTO, Sept. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- The Indian government has opened aline of credit worth 20 million US dollars for small scale projects to assist farmers in Mozambique, local media reported Monday.

    According to a press release from the Mozambican Planning and Finance Ministry, the initiative covers such areas as the processing of coconuts, rural electrification, and the drilling ofwells and the installation of hand pumps, in the country's centralZambezia province.

    The memorandum formalizing this initiative was signed in India on Sept. 10 by Mozambican High Commissioner Carlos Agostinho do Rosario, and the Executive Director of the Export-Import Bank of India, R. Raman.

    On the same day, a second memorandum of understanding was signed, under which the Mozambican government and the Export-Import Bank reaffirmed their readiness to continue seeking for alternatives to deal with the problem of Mozambique's private debtto India, which was estimated to stand at 6.8 million dollars in late December 2003.

    The Indian government wrote off 3.8 million dollars of Mozambique's public debt in May 2003, under the HIPC (Heavily Indebted Poor Countries) debt relief initiative. Enditem