Abstract: An apparatus for controlling the idling speed of an engine is disclosed. An idling speed control valve disposed in an idle passage communicates with the intake passage downstream and upstream of the throttle valve to control the amount of the airflow supplied to the idling engine. A neutral start switch outputs an instruction signal to an ECU based on a switching operation of a shift lever from its neutral range to a drive range. Based on the instruction signal, the ECU computes a duty factor to increase the airflow amount through the idle speed control valve to a predetermined amount. The increased airflow amount is subsequently attenuated to a predetermined magnitude with an attenuation factor based on a change rate of the engine speed.