IMF Rescue Plan Causes Fistfight Among Argentinian Deputies

A fistfight erupted in Argentina's congress late on Thursday over the government's efforts to push through reforms to the country's bankruptcy laws demanded by the International Monetary Fund.

Deputies accused President Eduardo Duhalde of kowtowing to the Fund in his efforts to obtain a multi-billion dollar rescue package. One made a symbolic protest by placing a US flag on the congress president's desk.

Mr Duhalde, in office only four months after two predecessors quit amid riots sparked by a four-year recession, has sought the speedy approval of the bills, part of an IMF-inspired package that includes sharp spending cuts.

After a chaotic session, the lower house eventually approved the changes, which critics claim allow debtors to default on foreign loans with impunity.

Mr Duhalde has been pleading with the World Bank to extend the deadline on an $800m loan repayment due next week.

Buenos Aires has already defaulted on the $140bn it owes to private sector banks and lenders, but failing to repay the $1.3bn it owes the Bank and the Fund this month would destroy the country's chances of securing a new IMF package and would place it on a list of financial outcasts including Iraq, Sudan, Liberia and Zimbabwe.

Mr Duhalde said yesterday he had received a favourable response from the Bank. "We had news ... [we] could extend the deadline of the payment." To default "would be very serious".