WASHINGTON, March 15: The International Monetary Fund on Friday fully restored Liberia’s IMF status and approved $900 million in immediate financial support to the impoverished African country.

The IMF said its executive board agreed to fully normalize financial relations after more than two decades of protracted arrears” by Liberia to the 185-nation institution.

The decisions also enabled the IMF to pledge financial support of some $952 million to Liberia.

The executive board’s decisions allow an immediate disbursement to Liberia of some $900 million while the remaining 52 million will be drawn in six installments.

Liberia reached an important milestone today in normalizing its financial relations with the IMF by clearing its long overdue financial obligations, said Murilo Portugal, IMF deputy managing director.

He said bridge loans by the United States helped Liberia clear its arrears to the IMF while other countries contributed to the financing package.

The suspension of Liberia’s rights to use IMF aid was lifted after overdue obligations to the IMF were cleared through a bridge loan amounting to 888 million dollars.

The approved IMF financial support includes a 391-million-dollar, three-year arrangement under a poverty reduction and economic growth loan and a $561-million- arrangement in support of the an economic programme covering 2008-2010.

The IMF directors also agreed that Liberia had taken the steps necessary to reach a qualifying point under its Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) programme.

The IMF said that a separate news release regarding the deliberations on its HIPC qualifications will be issued jointly with the World Bank following consideration of them by the Bank’s executive board, which was expected early next week.

Liberia has fulfilled the requirements to reach the decision point under the Enhanced HIPC Initiative, Portugal said.

Liberia is recovering from 14 years of a brutal civil war that killed 270,000 people and ended in 2003 after former warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor stepped down.—AFP