PANAMA CITY, Panama -- The Panama Canal expansion project is getting a $400 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank.

Panama Canal Authority administrator Alberto Aleman said Thursday that the IDB's approval of the loan demonstrates confidence in the project ``despite the world financial crisis.''

The $5.25 billion project to construct two wider locks is expected to double the 50-mile canal's capacity. They are scheduled for completion by 2014.

The Panama Canal Authority is borrowing up to $2.3 billion between 2009 and 2011 to help finance the project. It expects to pay that back by increasing ship tolls an average of 3.5 percent a year.

The waterway now moves about 5 percent of the world's cargo.

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