Iraq on Friday won a crucial loan accord with the International Monetary Fund and a $14 billion debt swap with private lenders, taking key steps toward a wider debt deal and access to world financial markets, according to Reuters. The $685 million IMF standby credit arrangement was the fund's first ever with Iraq and is designed to support the nation's economic program over the next 15 months. "The Iraqi authorities were successful in promoting macroeconomic stability in 2005, despite the extremely difficult security environment," said IMF Deputy Managing Director Takatoshi Kato. An insurgency in parts of the country and almost daily suicide bombings in and around Baghdad, the capital, has hindered economic rebuilding since the U.S. invasion in 2003. But Washington says progress is being made and the IMF agreement is crucial for Iraq's ability to borrow money overseas and necessary to trigger a full debt reduction deal approved by the Paris Club of creditors a year ago. --More 01 24 Local Time 22 24 GMT
