ANKARA The World Bank plans to increase its exposure to Turkey to $35 billion within three years, the bank's Turkey country director was quoted as saying by Turkish state-owned news agency Anadolu on Thursday.

Humberto Lopez told Anadolu the World Bank planned to add $18 billion worth of new operations to its existing %17 billion exposure in the country, adding this figure included providing direct credits to the government supporting the private sector.

Lopez said the $35 billion package was in response to the "strong commitment" by Ankara to re-establish macroeconomic stability and to support steps in that direction, according to Anadolu.

(Reporting by Nevzat Devranoglu; Writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Daren Butler)