Reuters, Dili – World Bank president James Wolfensohn yesterday signed over its first US$21.5 million in reconstruction aid for East Timor, amid criticism the bank has dragged its feet in providing funds to help rebuild the ravaged territory.

Mr Wolfensohn said the bank had not expected to launch any programmes until May. He lashed out at critics, saying: "I've had ... some of my colleagues here living in tents wherever they could get cover, 24 hours a day to get this project going. I frankly find it incomprehensible that people don't recognise that everybody is working their tails off here to get money to East Timor."

Mr Wolfensohn earlier visited the coastal township of Manatuto, east of Dili, where there were impassioned pleas for help from church and local political leaders. "The people sitting here have no food, so can you help us in our plantings?" said Catholic priest Padre Domingos.

Mr Wolfensohn said the World Bank was "anxious" to help the East Timorese and announced 600 million rupiah for six villages in the Manatuto area for the next two to three months. "This is my first visit to East Timor. I have been to other war zones and I have been to other countries that have been ravaged, but the sheer scale and the depth of the destruction surprised me," he said.