DHAKA, March 28 (Reuters) - Japan has put on hold a promised $400 million loan for a river bridge in Bangladesh, as it focuses instead on reconstruction at home following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, a senior Bangladeshi official said on Monday.
"Tokyo has officially conveyed this to us as the country needs to focus more on reconstructing its quake and tsunami-battered economy," said Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, secretary of the economic relations division at the finance ministry.
The loan agreement with Japan was scheduled to be signed this month, Musharraf said, but it was not now clear when this might be possible.
The Japanese government was part of an international consortium, led by the World Bank, that agreed last year to lend Bangladesh up to $2.9 billion for the 6-km (3.8 mile) multi-purpose bridge over the river Padma.
Musharraf said the project would go ahead as planned despite the delay over the Japanese loan, as the other lenders including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Islamic Development Bank, will make funds available as promised.
Construction of the bridge -- which should boost the south Asian country's economy by linking the underdeveloped southwest with the capital Dhaka and the main Chittagong port -- is due to begin this year and complete in 2015. (Reporting by Serajul Islam Quadir; Editing by Anis Ahmed and Ian Geoghegan)