The Papua New Guinea prime minister, Sir Michael Somare, has accused the media of mis-reporting with claims that the government had announced 260 million US dollars of new infrastructure development in his home province of East Sepik.
Sir Michael says the NEC had announced funding for both East and West Sepik, in the same way he had earlier revealed more money would be allocated to Simbu and Milne Bay.
He says the approval was not for new projects but those from the government's public investment programme and the national transport development plan, which had been put forward before his administration came in to office in 2002.
Sir Michael also says these existing projects are to be funded over the next five year period and did not involve the level of funding reported.
He says he treats all the provinces as equal and says the government is improving and upgrading infrastructure to further economic growth throughout the country.
