By Sue Pleming and Lesley Wroughton
Washington - The United States pledged to cancel $391-million in outstanding debt owed by Liberia, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Tuesday, urging others to help the West African nation recover from conflict.
"We will cancel that debt, all of it, under the framework for highly indebted countries," Rice told a donors conference on Liberia held at the World Bank in Washington.
"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.
| 'Much more remains to be done and the clock is ticking' |
An on-off conflict from 1989 to 2003 devastated the once prosperous country, wrecking infrastructure and leaving more than 200 000 dead. Its foreign debt is estimated at about $3,7-billion, half of which is accrued interest.
Rice also announced that US President George Bush had asked the US Congress to provide more than $200-million in additional aid for Liberia for the next US fiscal year starting in October.
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"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 Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa's first female president.
Speaking at the same conference, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz said Liberia's debt was an unacceptable burden for a country of only three million people and appealed to donors to cancel the debt.
"Much more remains to be done and the clock is ticking," Wolfowitz said.
| 'Please tell your finance ministers to speed up the process' |
Johnson-Sirleaf has travelled the world urging countries to cancel Liberia's arrears to the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and African Development Bank.
Countries have been unable to agree on how the arrears clearance should be financed. Without an agreement, Liberia will be unable to access new loans from the institutions and qualify for wider debt relief, including under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) framework mentioned by Rice.
Johnson-Sirleaf told the conference debt relief was critical for her nation, adding that the risk 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.
Rice said it was a time of optimism in Liberia and she 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," Rice said.
The Liberian president said she was working hard to revitalise the country's agriculture industry and to reduce poverty in a nation where Wolfowitz said the annual income is just $120 - about 30 cents a day.
"Liberia today is at one of those key moments. We are not out of the woods yet, not by a long shot," she said.
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