WASHINGTON, Sept 14: The Bush administration will put forth a plan before a donors' conference in Paris this week to cancel billions of dollars in debt owed by some of the world's poorest nations.

Officials at the US Treasury Department told reporters that the proposal would drastically reduce the debt burden on at least 27 poor nations. They did not name the countries that could benefit from this plan.

But officials at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund said they fear the US proposal could leave them strapped for cash. The US Treasury Department plans to convince other donor nations at the Paris meeting later this week that previous debt relief programmes have not been very successful in reducing debt burdens on poor nations.

Jubilee USA Network, a leading advocate of Third World debt forgiveness, said the new plan was very encouraging. "We welcome signs that the (rich countries) appear to be moving towards a full write-off of debt. (So far this) process has been painfully slow," said another advocacy group, Oxfam.

A recent World Bank/IMF report also acknowledges that current efforts to lighten the debt burden on the world's poorest countries are failing to provide the expected level of relief.

Charity groups like Oxfam say the report justifies their demand that wealthy countries need to write off 100 per cent of the debt of the most impoverished states.