‘6 months too short to restructure Dubai World’

Six months would be too short to restructure indebted state-controlled conglomerate Dubai World,the emirate’s finance chief said on Tuesday,adding that it has enough assets to meet its obligations.

Dubai’s govwernment would support the group “as an owner”,Abdulrahman al-Saleh told ‘Al Arabiya televison’,without being more specific. He said it was premature to talk about cash injections into the group’s developer Nakheel.

The six-month period would be focused on sorting out the debt of Dubai World,he said.

Dubai,which has a programme to seek further sovereign loans,should be able to tap debt markets when it needs,Saleh said without giving a timeframe.