DR Congo eyes debt relief after Paris Club deal

PARIS/KINSHASA (Reuters) - International creditors have agreed to reschedule Democratic Republic of Congo's debt, paving the way for its entry into an International Monetary Fund debt relief scheme, the central African nation said on Thursday.

"It's done," Information Minister Lambert Mende told Reuters, adding that Congo had been informed late on Wednesday that members of the Paris Club of creditors had agreed terms for a rescheduling of its debt with them.

"I think the (IMF) administrative council will announce it in December," Mende added of an expected IMF approval of Congo's request for a three-year Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) programme, a scheme aimed at helping poor countries manage their debt commitments.

Congo is estimated to hold up to $11 billion of foreign debt, the bulk of it with the Paris Club. Inclusion in the IMF debt relief scheme could save Congo substantial debt service repayments.

Earlier a source for the 19-nation Paris Club told Reuters: "The Paris club has given its financing assurances for the IMF programme for the DRC."

The source, who declined to be identified, noted that the rescheduling would take place once agreement on the HIPC scheme was formalised.

The debt deal looked on the cards after Congo agreed in August to downsize a controversial infrastructure-for-minerals agreement with China from $9 billion to $6 billion.

The IMF feared the arrangement to use Congo's vast mineral reserves as a guarantee for infrastructure projects could ultimately plunge it even deeper into debt, and insisted the terms of the deal be adapted.