BERLIN - German Finance Minister Hans Eichel is pushing the International Monetary Fund to sell gold reserves to help ease the debt of the world's poorest nations, the weekly Der Spiegel says in its edition due for publication on Monday.
The report, quoting an aide to Eichel, said by selling the gold the IMF would ease the debt of the world's poorest nations under a so-called Marshall Plan put forward by British finance chief Gordon Brown.
Last week IMF boss Rodrigo Rato said the IMF's undervalued gold should be used in an "efficient way", and this would be to sell it on the market. He said it could mark a vital breakthrough for the poorest nations.
In London in February, G7 finance ministers asked the IMF to draft a proposal on gold sales for debt relief to be presented at the spring meetings of the Fund and the World Bank in mid-April in Washington.
The world's most-indebted nations owe the IMF about 11.0 billion dollars.
Selling IMF gold reserves to finance debt relief is strongly favoured by Britain, the G7's current chairman, but the United States has strong reservations about the approach.
The International Monetary Fund had 3,217 tonnes of gold in its reserves with a market value of 45 billion dollars (35 billion euros), the Financial Times newspaper said last week. In August, the fund officially valued its gold reserves at 8.5 billion dollars.
04/02/2005 16:39 GMT