MOSCOW, June 22 (Xinhua) -- Russian government has decided to allocate 7 billion rubles (around 230 million U.S. dollars) to fund the 27th Summer Universiade due to be held at Russia's Volga city of Kazan in 2013.

    Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday endorsed the finance bill, said Itar-Tass news agency.

    Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said the government has approved the general construction plan for the 2013 Universiade, in which 29 out of 64 projects will be listed into the federal fiscal spending programs.

    One of the priorities of the construction work, said Shuvalov, was to improve infrastructure of the Kazan State University, and provide college students with a modernized university city.

    Kazan, the regional capital of Russia's Tatarstan republic, was the economic and cultural center in the middle reaches of the Volga River. The thousand-year city once bid for the 2011 Universiade, but lost to China's Shenzhen by four votes.