KUWAIT CITY, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Kuwait's sovereign wealth fund said Sunday it will keep stakes in Citigroup Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. despite the tumble in shareholder value.

    "The authority has no intention of selling its holdings in Merrill Lynch or Citigroup in the near term, since the investment policies are based on a long-term vision," the Kuwait Investment Authority said in a statement.

    In January 2008, the agency pumped three billion U.S. dollars into Citigroup and another two billion dollars in Merrill Lynch, a big step amid the spreading global financial turmoil.

    However, the deals have drawn criticism from some members of the Kuwaiti parliament after the shareholder value shrank in harsh economic climate.

    The statement was also a reply to questions from lawmaker al-Tabtabai, who said in February the sovereign wealth fund lost 9 billion dinars (around 30.1 billion dollars) from March to December last year.

    The Kuwait Investment Authority, the world's oldest and one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, operates around 300 billion dollars before the global economic woe.