IMF cancels $268-M Haiti debt

PARIS — The IMF says it has canceled Haiti's $268 million debt and will lend the earthquake-devastated country another $60 million to help it with reconstruction plans. The International Monetary Fund says the decision is part of a plan for long-term reconstruction after the Jan. 12 magnitude-7 quake, which killed as many as 300,000 people and left 1.6 million homeless. The agency says the decision will encourage aid contributions to the impoverished country. IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in a statement Wednesday that donors must deliver on their promises "so reconstruction can be accelerated, living standards quickly improved and social tensions soothed." The three-year loan carries a zero interest rate until 2011 which then rises to no more than 0.5 percent. — AP