http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/ … 6F264F.htm
US drops Liberia debt
Rice, left, pledged to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, centre, that Liberia's debt would be dropped [AFP]
The US secretary of state has said the US will cancel the $391 million in debt owed by Liberia and urged other states to help the West African nation recover from conflict.
"We will cancel that debt, all of it, under the framework for highly indebted countries," Condoleezza Rice told a donor conference at the World Bank in Washington on Tuesday.
"We hope that this will help to relieve Liberia's crippling debt burden, a debt burden that today's leadership do not deserve," she said.
A conflict from 1989 to 2003 devastated Liberia, leaving more than 200,000 dead. Its foreign debt is estimated at $3.7bn, half of which is accrued interest.
Rice also announced that George Bush, the US president, had asked the US congress to provide more than $200 million in additional aid for Liberia in the fiscal year starting in October.
"The United States is determined to continue and to expand our support in Liberia," said Rice, who attended the inauguration over a year ago of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Liberia’s president.
Paul Wolfowitz, president of the World Bank, said Liberia's debt was an unacceptable burden for a country of only 3 million people and appealed to donors to cancel the debt.
"Much more remains to be done and the clock is ticking," Wolfowitz told representatives from donor countries including Norway, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Netherlands and Spain.
Johnson-Sirleaf has travelled the world seeking commitments by governments to clear Liberia's arrears to the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and African Development Bank.
Liberia's debt to the World Bank alone stands at $800m.
Without an agreement on the arrears, Liberia will be unable to access new lending and qualify for broader debt relief, including protection under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) framework.
Johnson-Sirleaf said debt relief was critical for her nation, warning that the danger of a return to war was always high in post-conflict countries and a peace dividend was needed.
"Please tell your finance ministers to speed up the process," she said, listing her government's political and economic achievements praised by the IMF and World Bank.
Rice praised Johnson-Sirleaf's administration for its work in rooting out corruption and trying to rebuild the country.
"We are putting our full support behind Liberia's government," she said.
