VENEZUELA GETS 300 MLN DLRS CREDIT FOR ALUMINUM Venezuela has obtained more than 300 mln dlrs in financing for industrial projects and increased its lines of credit for import financing, finance minister Manuel Azpurua said. 'We can say that we are achieving the recuperation of credit, but that cannot be done overnight,' Azpurua said in a television interview. He said a credit agreement for 100 mln marks will be signed this week with the German state bank Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau (KFW), to finance an expansion of the state aluminum company Venalum. The credit will be divided into two separate agreements, one for 85 mln marks with an interest rate of 6.13 pct, and another for 15 mln marks, at 6.20 pct. Azpurua said financing has also been obtained for expansion of Alcasa, another state aluminum company, and for projects in the state steel and petrochemical industries. Yesterday, he said Venezuela obtained two new credits of 5.0 mln dlrs each for export financing, one from Credit du Nord of France and the other from Britain's Midland Bank. The Venezuelan government has been criticised at home for failing to obtain new credits, despite its insistence on repaying foreign debt according to the terms of a rescheduling accord reached last February. Azpurua recently visited Tokyo hoping to acquire new credits for industrial expansions but clinched no agreements. Japanese officials refused to allow a new issue of Venezuelan bonds until the country regains its 'Triple A' credit rating.