Norway has frozen a 235 million kroner ($42.6 million) grant to Greece, saying the financially strapped country has failed to live up to the conditions that were linked to receiving the money.

The grant was meant for environmental and health projects, but Norway on Thursday decided to halt the payments. The Foreign Ministry in Oslo says the decision was based on the fact that Greece had not delivered on certain obligations, by for example, failing to provide enough funding for the projects itself.

Only a fraction of the money had been paid out so far.

Norway is not part of the European Union, but helps to fund development projects in some EU countries in return for access to EU's single market.