Angola seeks deal with IMF on new loans: report

LUANDA (Reuters) - Prospects for a deal between Angola and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that could pave the way for development funds are increasing as both parties signalled they were willing to work together, a media report said.

Economy Minister Manuel Nunes Junior was cited as saying on Monday that the IMF had vowed to remove "rigid pre-requisites" for a deal that will grant Angola, which is rebuilding after a ruinous 27-year civil war, access to financial help.

The announcement was made after Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos met with IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Khan at the G8 summit last week.

Nunes told state-owned Jornal de Angola's online website that an IMF delegation would arrive in Angola in coming weeks to start a new round of talks with the Angolan government.

"The IMF will remove demands that have for years prevented Angola from getting loans from that institution," Nunes was cited as saying on state-owned Jornal de Angola's website.

Relations between Angola and the IMF have been frosty since the end of the civil war in 2002. The IMF has criticised Angola several times since the end of the war about the way the country manages and accounts for its oil revenues.

In 2007, Angola broke off talks with the IMF on an economic support programme on the grounds that it was quite able to keep economic stability on its own, raising fears over future oil transparency in one of Africa's biggest oil producers.

Instead, it decided to implement its own macro-economic programme on the back of its own resources and multi-billion loans from China. The country has had double-digit growth since 2004 and managed to control inflation.