Jean Clement, the IMF's assistant director for Africa, said on Wednesday that he was "heartened" by the attitude of the new authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, although debt arrears meant the IMF could not offer new loans yet, Reuters reported from Kinshasa.

Clement was in the DRC capital with an IMF delegation for a second round of talks on resuming aid. "We are here to finish our evaluation of the economic situation and to discuss an agreement on staff monitoring of the government's interim programme," he told Reuters. "As the country is still in arrears to the IMF, our charter prevents an agreement on additional loans." Under such a programme, IMF staff would be posted to various government institutions for up to a year, after which donors could come up with a loan to help finance Congo's massive external debt and arrears payments, depending on progress.

New Congolese President Joseph Kabila reopened dialogue with the IMF during a visit to Washington in February, following years of tense relations with the late former presidents Laurent-Desire Kabila and Mobutu Sese Seko.