NEW DELHI, Aug 5: Japan will lend $970 million to India for the year to March 2009 to support a host of infrastructure projects, its foreign minister said on Tuesday.

India has been the largest recipient of low-interest Japanese loans in the past five years, visiting Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said in New Delhi.

Last year, Japan provided more than two billion dollars in loans to India, according to officials of the Japanese Embassy in New Delhi.

The loans are designed to help the construction of a new subway in southern Chennai city, a road and a power plant using biomass as fuel, among other projects, the embassy said.—AFP