Sudan tells IMF budget strained by peace accords

The cost of complying with a series of peace accords is straining Sudan's budget, top Sudanese officials said in a letter to the International Monetary Fund released on Friday asking for debt relief.
"The demands of implementing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the Eastern Peace Agreement and the Darfur Peace Agreement are substantial," Sudan's Finance Minister Al-Zubeir Ahmed Al-Hassan and Central Bank Governor Sabir Mohammed Hassan told IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato.
"The situation would be improved considerably with greater donor support and recognition of our accomplishments," the officials said in the July 27 letter laying out Sudan's economic policy plans through December 2008.
The Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 2005 ended a 21-year civil war between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan's People Liberation Movement/Army that devastated a significant part of Africa's largest country by area.
More than 2 million died, 4 million were uprooted and 600,000 people sought shelter beyond Sudan's border as refugees, according to the United Nations Mission in Sudan.
One of the world's worst humanitarian crises continues in western Sudan, despite the Darfur Peace Agreement signed by the government and one faction of rebel forces in May 2006. Foreign experts estimate the four-year conflict in Darfur has killed 200,000 people and driven another 2.5 million from their home.
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said in Rome on Friday his government was willing to observe a cease-fire in Darfur from the start of peace talks with rebels next month.
Bashir said he hoped the October 27 peace talks in Libya would be the last of their kind and finally end the conflict. Sudan's economy grew by 11.8 percent in 2006 and is expected to expand 11.2 percent in 2007 and 10.7 percent in 2008, the Sudanese officials said in their letter to the IMF. Increased oil production accounts for much of the growth.
But Sudan's ability to service its $27 billion debt load will be constrained by revenue shortfalls, the need to rebuild foreign exchange reserves, the burden of implementing the various peace agreements and the need to address critical poverty and reconstruction requirements, they said.
"We remain hopeful the international community will recognise our track record, and take concrete action on debt relief for Sudan comparable to that provided to numerous other countries," they said.
Sudan will make minimum debt payments of at least $50 million to the IMF in 2007 and 2008, and will restrict new commercial borrowings to no more than $700 million in each of the two years, the officials said.