China's earthquake zone of Sichuan can expect US$510 million of World Bank (WB) loan in January next year, said visiting WB Group President Robert B. Zoellick in Chengdu on Sunday.

Zoellick was on a four-day visit in China at the invitation of the Chinese Ministry of Finance. He arrived in this southwest province on Sunday.

He said that WB has been using its global expertise and professional resources to assist people in Sichuan to get back on their feet.

The planned loan is expected to be used on projects for rebuilding urban infrastructure, health and education facilities in this central site of the magnitude-8 earthquake on May 12 this year, which resulted the deaths of more than 69,000 people with 18,000 still missing.

Zoellick visited an earthquake site in Beichuan County and a community of makeshift houses built for earthquake victims.

(Xinhua News Agency December 15, 2008)