Grenada's legislature has backed plans to use a US$83 million (€56 million) loan from China to build a marina to boost tourism.

The complex, approved Friday, will include condominiums, a shopping plaza and berths for more than 50 yachts on Grenada's northern coast - capitalising on a boom in inter-island yacht tourism, Economic Development Minister Anthony Boatswain said.

As a condition of the loan from the state-run Export-Import Bank of China, the marina will be built by the same Chinese firm which constructed Grenada's national sports stadium in 2007.

Construction, to begin this year, will be concluded by 2011, Senate President Kenny Lalsingh said.

Grenada, a former British colony of 90,000 people, switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to China in 2005.

China considers Taiwan a renegade province, and the Asian rivals have for years competed for recognition from Latin American and Caribbean countries, offering aid and trade as incentives.

- AP