BRIEF-Nokia says agrees to 500-mln-euro loan with EIB

HELSINKI, Feb 19 (Reuters) - The world's top cellphone maker Nokia said on Thursday:

* Signed a 500-million-euro ($629.9 million) loan agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB).

* The five-year loan will be used to partly finance software research and development (R&D) projects Nokia is undertaking during 2009-2011 to make Symbian-based smartphones more competitive.

* The R&D activities supported by this loan will also benefit the work of the Symbian Foundation and its development of open-source software for mobile devices.

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