G-8 nations, which have a combined voting strength of 45.35 per cent, need to muster only 4.66 per cent votes more to block loan approvals to India at the World Bank governing body meetings, World Bank documents here show.

A minimum of 50.10 per cent votes is required to get a loan proposal approved in the multilateral funding agency's governing body meetings.

Among the G-8, the US has a voting strength of 17.03 per cent followed by Japan 6.04 per cent, Germany 4.67 per cent, France and United Kingdom 4.47 per cent each, Russia and Italy 2.89 per cent each. All this adds up to 45.35 per cent. The G-8 needs to lobby with its allies to get 4.66 per cent to block India's future loans which it can easily get from Netherlands or Denmark who have a combined votingstrength of 6.59 per cent.

Netherlands has already opposed India's nuclear tests and frozen aid to India. It has a voting strength of 2.30 and Denmark 4.29 per cent. Though these countries have not imposed any sanctions against India, it remains to be seen if they will be influenced by the United States, observers here said.

World Bank loans to India were set to peak to USD 3 billion in the financial year 1998 (July 1997 to June 1998) with over USD 1.09 billion loans already approved for various projects and USD 900 million yet to be cleared by the governing board.

The World Bank, whose governing body meets every Tuesday and Friday in Washington to approve loan proposals, has been deferring the decision on the USD 900 million loan to India.

The US has retaliated against India's multiple nuclear tests conducted on May 11 and May 13 by imposing economic sanctions. It has threatened to block loans barring those for humanitarian purposes under its 1994 nuclear proliferation prevention laws. The USsucceeded in getting the G-8 countries yesterday to agree to its proposal to act unilaterally against India for their nuclear tests by blocking future loans from multilateral agencies.