Helsinki - Nokia, the world's largest maker of mobile phones, said Thursday it had secured a 500 million-euro (629 million- dollar) loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB).

The five-year loan was to be used to co-finance software research and development (R&D) projects, mainly for Nokia's Symbian-based smartphones, Nokia said.

Symbian is an open-source operating system used for mobile devices, and is supported by among others Nokia.

Nokia recently announced it planned to concentrate its mobile research and development to fewer sites in Finland.

In January, Nokia reported a 19 per cent drop in sales and a sharp drop in operating profit for the fourth quarter of 2008. (dpa)