He also indicated that American proposals for a single, total and immediate cancellation of poor countries' multilateral debt had not won unanimous approval here.

- Debt promise: Cancel all multilateral debts owed by the world's poorest countries.

Since then, Argentina has forced the fund to back down twice in negotiations over financial aid by threatening defaults on its multilateral debt.

That same month, the World Bank and IMF agreed to fund $1.5 billion in writing off the Liberia's multilateral debt.

Other countries that subsequently reach the completion point automatically receive full forgiveness of their multilateral debt under MDRI.

The I.M.F. accounts for roughly half these countries' multilateral debts and has long resisted any debt relief on principle.

By the end of the year, Argentina must meet payments of more than $6 billion on its multilateral debt.

We welcome the cancellation of bilateral debt, which is relatively easy to decide politically, the difficult part is multilateral debt.

The multilateral debts must also be cancelled.

(This was "bilateral debt," owed by one state to another, as opposed to the "multilateral debt" debated at Gleneagles.)