The Inter-American Development Bank will double its aid to Haiti next year to help the impoverished nation upgrade its crumbling infrastructure and broaden social programs, the bank's chief announced Sunday.

IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno, in comments at the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, said the bank will double its grants to Haiti to US$100 million for 2009 to help the country's government with a raft of vital investments.

"Haiti is the most fragile of our member countries. No other nation in Latin America and the Caribbean is as vulnerable to economic shocks and natural disasters," Moreno said.

"It requires extraordinary assistance from the international community."

Devastating storms

IDB's announcement comes a few months after some 800 people were confirmed dead after four devastating storms hit Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest country.

Rural families, already struggling with soaring food prices, lost their safety nets when fields were destroyed and livestock wiped out by the storms, which caused $1 billion worth of damage in August and September.

Sanitation projects

Some US$15 million of the money would be earmarked for potable water and sanitation projects in the storm-ravaged cities of Gonaives, Port de Paix, Les Cayes, Ouanaminthe, and Saint Marc.

And, last month, a school collapse killed nearly 100 people at the K-12 College La Promesse outside the capital, underscoring Haiti's deteriorating infrastructure. Following the tragedy, President René Preval vowed to improve urban planning.

Moreno said the IDB's board also approved US$14 million in interim debt relief for Haiti for the first half of 2009, most of its loans.

The development bank has since 2007 provided Haiti with US$50 million in grants per year.

- AP