Japan loans Jordan $100 million for electricity reforms

AMMAN (Reuters) - Japan extended a $100 million loan to help Jordan's electricity sector reforms as part of Tokyo's support for the kingdom's IMF-guided reforms, officials said on Sunday.

"Japan will continue our support for Jordan in its economic and financial reforms and further modernization," Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said in joint remarks with his Jordanian counterpart Ayman al Safadi at the start of a visit to Jordan.

Japan is one of Jordan's main donors, contributing over $4 billion in loans, aid and technical support in recent decades.

Jordan's King Abdullah visited Tokyo in April where he discussed a new package of economic aid and Japanese assistance in financing a major desalination plant on the Red Sea to help ease the country's chronic water shortages.

Hayashi will head to Egypt on Monday and later fly to Saudi Arabia.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Ros Russell)