The World Bank is to give Pakistan a $1 billion easy term loan to fund development projects in the 2005-06 fiscal that begins July 1.

Abid Hasan, the World Bank's operations adviser in Pakistan, at a meeting Tuesday with Salman Shah, the prime minister's advisor on finance, and Hina Rabbani Khar, the minister of state for economic affairs, urged that a priority list of projects be drawn up so the loan could be disbursed.

The meeting reviewed progress on key issues regarding the World Bank's lending programme for the new fiscal, Dawn reported Wednesday quoting an official statement issued after the meeting.

Shah has directed the economic affairs division of the finance ministry to shortlist projects that can be fast tracked under the country's Medium Term Development Framework.

He stressed the need to focus on the projects of human resource development, energy, water, employment generation, infrastructure building, second generation reforms and vocational and technical education.

The effects of the reforms needed to benefit the people and that would be visible only if the government effectively tackled the problem of unemployment, Shah maintained.