
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 22, 1990                   TAG: 9003221838
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Short

DEMOCRATS TO PROPOSE $2 BILLION FOR EUROPE

Senate Democrats plan a $2 billion package of additional aid for emerging democracies in Eastern Europe, six times what President Bush has proposed, according to a copy of the package obtained Wednesday.

The draft bill by Sens. Claiborne Pell, D-R.I., and Joseph R. Biden, D-Del., calls for the new aid - four times more than even the Democrats proposed just two months ago - to be distributed to seven former Soviet bloc nations through 1992.

The draft includes $1.2 billion for U.S. participation in a European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which has been proposed by France to finance public works and new private enterprises in former communist economies.

The administration has proposed spending $300 million in additional aid in fiscal 1991 for Eastern Europe beyond the $738 million Congress set aside to help Poland and Hungary through 1992.

by CNB