Citing a confidential draft decision to be submitted for approval at the IMF's annual meeting at the end of September, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported the debt waiver will total $2.8 billion.

The proposal involves extending the HIPC initiative launched in 1996 by two years to allow additional countries to qualify for debt relief, Sueddeutsche said.

The draft names Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Myanmar, Sao Thome and Principe, Somalia and Sudan as special problem cases, the newspaper reported.

The IMF estimates that by the end of 2000 some 26 countries will fulfil the conditions to qualify for the HIPC initiative, Sueddeutsche said.

So far seven countries have qualified for debt relief the HIPC initiative, which wasapproved in September 1996.

But the new proposals envisage linking debt relief more closely to social developments in a country and to find interim solutions for some states until HIPC measures take effect, the newspaper reported.

Sueddeutsche said the indebtedness of African countries was of particular concern because of political instability on the continent.

In addition, some of the most heavily indebted states were suffering from the decline in raw materials prices as a result of the Asian crisis.