QUITO, March 24 (Xinhua) -- The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) pledged more than 1 million U.S. dollars to fund seven projects in Ecuador, the country's presidential office said on Tuesday.

    The fund will be channeled to such fields as health, water resources, agriculture and oil industry, said visiting IAEA President Mohamed El Baradei.

    The seven projects to be completed between 2009 and 2011 are based on nuclear technologies, which include the creation of a nuclear instrumentation center and a national tissue bank, the appliance of irrigation water and the improvement of a nuclear medicine department in a university hospital in Guayaquil, said the presidential office.

    The IAEA, a part of the United Nations, is the world's center of cooperation in the nuclear field, which works with its member states and multiple partners worldwide to promote safe, secure and peaceful nuclear technologies.

    Ecuador has been a member of the IAEA Board of Governors from 2007 to 2009.