HARARE (Reuters) - The World Bank said on Wednesday it planned to raise up to $100 million to help Zimbabwe fund economic reforms, in its first such initiative in the southern African country for 15 years. Zimbabwe has not received direct budget support from the World Bank and other multilateral institutions since 1999, following disputes over unpaid debts and policy differences with President Robert Mugabe's government. The move follows a thawing in relations between Western nations and Zimbabwe, which has renewed a staff programme with the International Monetary Fund and saw the European Union lift sanctions imposed more than a decade ago. Khundavi Kadiresani, the World Bank's representative for Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia told reporters Western nations had pledged $44 million towards the Zimbabwe Reconstruction Fund and she expected the amount to reach $100 million in 2015. The World Bank had only provided technical assistance to Zimbabwe since 2011, but that was about to change, she said. "The main purpose of this fund, ZimRef, is basically to help us expand our activities here," Kadiresan said. "For the first time we will also have activities including investment projects." Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said he would use some of the money to reform money-losing state-owned companies and carry out an audit of workers employed by the government. Chinamasa said last month the state wage bill would take 81 percent of the government's total budget in 2015, leaving little for infrastructure.