Saudi Arabia's council of ministers may approve a long-awaited mortgage law next week, a local newspaper said quoting a senior government official.   

The law is expected to revive a slowing lending market as it would cater to a larger proportion of housing demand in a country where less than a third of the population owns a home. Industry sources say the world's top oil exporter has a deficit of two million houses.

'Next week will mark the final phase for it (the draft mortgage law),' Al-Hayat newspaper reported, citing Abdul-Rahman Al-Sadhan, the secretary general of the council of ministers.

The law has been in planning stages for almost a decade. Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf last year said it would be implemented before end-2009. - Reuters