SARI Director-General of Textile and Clothing at the Ministry of Industries and Mines Golnar Nasrollahi said on Thursday that 40 percent of the country's textile units are in dire need of reconstruction and renovation.

In an exclusive interview with IRNA in northern city of Qaemshahr, she said the reconstruction and renewing of the textile facilities requires $. 500 million plus Rls. 2.20 billion.

It takes three years to reconstruct and renovate the country's textile units, she said.

Some 280,000 Iranians are employed in 7,000 textile units now operating in the country, she added.

Reconstruction and renovation of textile units is related to both machinery and financial and management of the units, she said.

Highlighting the industry as among units with highest rate of workforce, she said, "we produce some 800 million square meters of cotton products each year, otherwise, we had to import $800 million worth of imports annually."

The state-owned textile units have born the brunt of the problems in the country, she said.

Share of world market in developing countries stands at $ 500 billion and the amount is predicted to register an increase of 20 percent by the year 2005, Nasrollahi said.

"We exported $230 million of textile products from the country last year," she added.