Qatar has bought QR6.5 billion ($1.79 billion) worth of listed banks' investment portfolios, the Qatari central bank said, part of a move to boost liquidity and encourage lending.

Earlier on Friday, newspaper al-Raya quoted central bank governor Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud al-Thani as saying the government had completed the purchase of the banks' portfolios on Thursday.

A central bank spokesman contacted by Reuters confirmed the government had bought 6.5 billion rials worth of banks' investments as part of a plan announced earlier this month.

On March 10, the Gulf Arab oil and gas exporter said it would ask its sovereign wealth fund to buy the portfolios in order to provide liquidity to facilitate lending, causing bank shares to surge.

The central bank co-ordinated with the Qatari banks to determine which investments they wanted to sell to the government, Sheikh Abdullah was quoted as saying by Al-Raya.

Several Gulf Arab countries have devised policies to limit the impact of the global financial crisis on their economies which have so far been buffered by savings from a six-year oil price boom.

Qatar said in October it would buy between 10 and 20 per cent of listed banks' capital to boost investor confidence in a $5.3 billion programme through the wealth fund.-Reuters