Nigeria's foreign debt has risen slightly since Nigeria left the Club of Paris of international creditors four years ago, officials said on Thursday, b ut internal debt has soared. Foreign debt rose marginally by 447 US dollars since Nigeria left the Paris Club, the debt management office (DMO) said, referring to the group of creditor countries. 'Between 2006 when Nigeria exited the Paris Club debts and December 2009, the external debt stock increased from 3.5 billion USD to 3.947,' the office said. 'The increase of 447 million dollars arose mainly from net disbursements, on existing World Bank concessional loans,' it said. But the amount of domestic debt rose significantly from 1.75 trillion naira in 2006 (11.64 billion dollars) to 3.2 trillion naira in 2009, or 11.76 percent of gross domestic product. Applicable critical limit for countries in Nigeria's economic peer group is 40 percent, the statement said. But this sharp rise in domestic debts has been balanced with less reliance on external borrowing, it also said. Recent positive ratings of the Nigerian economy by Standard and Poor's and Fitch rating agencies suggested Nigeria's economic outlook for this year was stable, junior Finance Minister Remi Babalola said earlier this month. ade/hd 