The U.S. State Department said Monday.The United States earmarked $95 million dollars for its contribution to the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) project for fiscal year 2002.

The funds come out of the 23.85 billion dollars, the country has allocated for diplomatic initiatives in 2002 announced that day.

The U.S. contribution to KEDO is up 73.1 percent from last year's budget of 54.9 million dolllars.

The State Department attributed the sharp increase to a two-fold surge in international heavy oil prices.

Washington promised to build two light-water reactors in North Korea via KEDO, an international energy consortium. South Korea and Japan are providing most of the funds to build the reactors, while the United States is supplying 500,000 tons of heavy oil for energy generation until the new reactors go on line.

In return, the North agreed to freeze its nuclear program under the 1994 Agreed Framework signed between the two countries.