Last update - 00:00 07/05/2007
Lebanon spends $318 million on reconstruction after summer war
By DPA
Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Monday his government had spent $318 million on reconstruction in the wake of the Second Lebanon War.
Siniora announced the figures at a press conference, saying Lebanon had received $707 million in reconstruction aid out of $1.3 billion pledged by donor countries, mainly Arab governments, after the end of hostilities.
The government had so far paid $181 million as compensation to the owners of the homes destroyed in Israeli strikes, the figures showed.
It spent $54 million on infrastructure, mainly repairing damaged roads, bridges, power plants and water networks.
Around $42 million was spent on civilians who were displaced as a result of the 33-day conflict, which took the lives of 1,200 people in Lebanon and 162 Israelis.
The Israeli strikes destroyed wide areas of southern Lebanon and large sectors of Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah hotbed, as well as 80 bridges in various areas across Lebanon, and also severely damaged villages adjacent to the Israeli border.
"Lebanon continues to suffer from the devastating consequences of the war and the persistent [internal] crisis," said Siniora.
Reacting to the Winograd Committee's partial report on the war, Siniora said he regretted the fact that the report had failed to pinpoint the material and human losses inflicted on Lebanon.
The war erupted after Hezbollah abducted Israel Defense Forces soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev and killed five others in a cross-border raid.