Zimbabwe will tap into special reserves at the International Monetary Fund to upgrade its sanitation system, amid a typhoid outbreak in the capital Harare, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said Wednesday.

Zimbabwe will spend $40 million (31 million euros) to improve water and sanitation facilities as well as the electricity supply across the country, said Biti.

"As we are sitting here, there is a typhoid attack in Harare. It is important that we rebuild Harare's water and sanitation capacity," Biti told journalists.

More than 600 cases of the disease, which is linked to poor sanitation, have been recorded in Harare, health officials said this week.

Biti said a further $30 million would be used to boost manufacturing, $20 million for agriculture and $20 million for the central bank to grant loans.

The country will leave about $100 million in reserves with the IMF, he added.

"Our sovereign debt is $9.1 billion. It is not wise to further contract any sovereign debt," he said, without naming the creditors.

In 2009, Zimbabwe was granted $500 million in "special drawing rights" at the IMF, which maintains the so-called SDR as a reserve currency that it lends to needy countries for liquidity needs.

The support for Zimbabwe was a small part of the IMF's global support of about $250 billion provided to all of its 186 members. Some of Zimbabwe's allocation was used to settle its arrears with the global lender.