Education Minister Dolores Cristina has pledged to "lobby" Cabinet for more funds to be set aside for restoration of books at the National Library.

The statement came in reaction to an item that appeared in The Times last week exposing the sorry state of hundreds of priceless books, some dating back to the time of the Knights, which are literally rotting away because the National Library does not have the funds to restore them.

"As minister responsible, I will make sure the government will increase the action (in this regard).

"I'm not saying in the next Budget there will be a large amount of money voted towards the restoration of library books but we have to make an effort and find a reasonable sum," Ms Cristina said.

"I can't quantify how much is needed but it has to be enough for the restoration to be carried out in stages."

Most of the library's 750,000 books are in a good state. But there are hundreds of old ones - dating to between the 16th and 18th centuries - that are literally turning into dust.

Tattered book spines, detached pages and insect drillings can be found all over the pages of these rare and priceless books.

The Education Ministry had pointed out that the government does allocate funds for the restoration of books to the Library Department but in practice hardly any of this money trickles down to the National Library, according to sources.

In fact, the ministry's coordinator for library projects, Henry Cachia, confirmed that there was no specific budget for restoration at the National Library. The Lions Club Sliema last week launched an initiative that will restore three books from an extremely rare, eight-volume collection of late 18th century botanical engravings known as the Hortus Romanus. The restoration will cost €9,000. Mrs Cristina said this was "providential" and that "once the project starts rolling, automatically we'll start taking other initiatives to keep up the momentum" of restorations.