Donors and investors have pledged 3.55 billion dollars for the development of resource-rich but neglected east Sudan, officials said on Thursday at the end of a two-day conference in Kuwait City.

"Total pledges made by participants in the east Sudan donors and investors forum came at 3.55 billion dollars," said Mustafa Osman Ismail, an advisor to the Sudanese president and head of the organising committee.

He later told a press conference that about 1.6 billion dollars pledged by the Khartoum government on the first day of the forum was part of the total.

"Sudan government promised to invest the pledges in development and infrastructure projects," Ismail said.

Hosts Kuwait topped donors with 500 million dollars while Iran pledged 200 million dollars and the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank pledged 250 million dollars.

The Kuwait-based Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development pledged 210 million dollars while the Arab Investment Guarantee Organisation undertook to provide support for 300 million dollars in investments.

Britain topped the Western donors with 70 million dollars while Italy and the European Commission pledged 30 and 24 million euros respectively, and China pledged 35 million dollars.

Ismail said that Qatar, the state-run Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, the Abu Dhabi Investment Fund and a Turkish state fund have said they will donate but will determine their exact pledges later.

He said the forum, the first of its kind, discussed 177 projects requiring some 4.2 billion dollars of pledges.

A total of 149 projects needing 2.2 billion dollars were aimed at fighting poverty and for infrastructure development, while 28 projects were geared for development of agriculture, industry and others at a cost of two billion dollars.

The forum was attended by representatives from 42 countries, 30 international and regional organisations like the Islamic Development Bank, the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

It was also attended by 78 non-governmental organisations and 84 private sector companies, Ismail said.

Kuwait's Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Sabah said he will travel to Sudan soon to sign an 80-million-dollar project, the first venture in east Sudan arising from the forum.

Main projects offered for investors and donors included a major dam at a cost of 600 million dollars, three cement factories for 450 million dollars, and roads and power projects at a cost of 430 million dollars.

"The region is in dire need of investment in infrastructure, human capital, and preservation of peace through new development," Claudio Caldarone, the UNDP country director for Sudan told AFP.

"There are also innumerable natural resources ... (including) oil, gas, gold, marble and there is also... uncultivated arable land," Caldarone said.

East Sudan, the size of Italy, is divided into the three states of Kassala, Al-Qadarif and Red Sea.

According to UNDP figures, 58 percent of the population in Red Sea state and 50 percent of those in Al-Qadarif live below the national poverty line, surviving on 50 dollars per person a month.