December 15, 2002	Sunday	Shawwal 10, 1423

BUENOS AIRES, Dec 14: A new high-level International Monetary Fund mission will arrive in Argentina on Monday to continue marathon aid talks that have been stalled for the past month, government economy chief Roberto Lavagna said on Saturday.

However, Lavagna sought to dampen expectations, cautioning that the IMF visit, which comes on the heels of Friday’s damaging new World Bank debt default that cut off existing loans from that lender, could end up being just a fact-finding mission.

With almost all outside credit snuffed out by a chaotic four-year recession that culminated in Argentina’s worst ever economic crisis, the government desperately needs to break a months-long stalemate with the IMF.

But caretaker President Eduardo Duhalde’s government must juggle appeasing the IMF without rekindling sporadic protest violence and simmering public fury over poverty now engulfing over half the population.

Argentina has strived for nearly a year to get the IMF to lend it enough cash to cover debts owed to multilateral bodies through the end of 2003. But the IMF wants Argentina to make deeper spending cuts, safeguard foreign investors’ interests and stop political squabbling first.

The government on Friday defaulted on more than $700 million due to the World Bank after technically defaulting on a first deadline a month ago, losing around $2 billion in existing financing that had been earmarked for AIDS programmes, schools and farm aid.—Reuters