Africa/Global: World Bank hit by $US100b corruption claim

Corruption may have sapped as much as $US100 billion from World Bank lending projects to help poor countries, a key US senator has claimed. Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Richard Lugar said if the figures presented to his panel by one university professor were accurate, it would seriously undermine the organisation's efforts to fight global poverty. The World Bank hotly disputed the figure of $US100 billion, adding that there was no basis for that estimate, but said the organisation was working to stem corruption.