Addis Ababa, FEB. 05(ENA)--Director-General of the United Kingdom's Agency for International Development Barrie Ireton announces his country's plans to support various development policies in Ethiopia.

Ireton told the opening here on Tuesday of an Aid Talks on the Ethio-British Development Cooperation.

According to Ireton, the government of UK was taking the first steps towards providing Direct Budget Support during the next 12-24 months.

"We have agreed to provide short term support to the water sector through the World Bank water and sanitation programme and plan to provide further support through UNICEF," he said.

He said the Government of UK was considering to support Ethiopia's tax reform program, adding announcement of position on such cooperation was forthcoming.

"We have agreed in principle to support development of the Freedom of Information Act, included in the Civil Service Reform Programme, and will discuss next steps with the Ministry of Capacity Building later this week," he said.

The Director-General commended development activities launched on full scale in Ethiopia after the two-year border war with Eritrea came to an end.

Dr. Mulu Ketsela, State Minister of Finance and Economic Development Cooperation said Ethio-British Development Cooperation was interrupted due to the aid freezing measures taken by the British Government following the Ethio-Eritrea border conflict in 1998.

Dr. Mulu said, "it is now high time to exchange views and share ideas on how to cope with outstanding issues and engage in the identification of new projects and programs in line with (Ethiopia's) Five Year Development Plan."

She indicated that Ethiopia has recently begun the implementation of a multifaceted sect oral capacity building program.

"We believe that the British Government can be our invaluable partner in (the) capacity development program," she said.