BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) - Argentina on Friday clinched key International Monetary Fund support for faster aid payments to help it fend off fears of impending debt default, but there was no sign of new cash on the horizon.
Visiting U.S. Treasury official John Taylor said only that talks with the Argentine government had been ``fruitful and detailed'', while local officials knocked down speculation Latin America's No.3 economy had asked for top-up aid in the first place.
Markets had guessed no fresh funding would come out of Friday's talks with Taylor after a White House spokesman said President Bush, Britain's Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said they backed Argentina's reforms but that it should focus on its existing IMF program. (Read photo caption below).
Local shares and bonds pared earlier gains on Friday, while markets in neighboring Brazil and Chile were also flat awaiting the outcome of the meeting.
Argentine officials addressed media speculation that Taylor's talks with President Fernando de la Rua and Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo had been disappointing by saying ``no announcements had been expected''. De la Rua meanwhile echoed the ``fruitful'' line of Taylor, who is due to meet local businessmen on Saturday before flying out.
But while markets had been waiting for signs the IMF would speed up an accelerated 1.2 billion payout in August, as the lender's chief Horst Koehler said on Friday the management would recommend, another obstacle beset Argentina's new austerity drive.
PHOTO CAPTION:
An Argentine worker holds a sign against the IMF during a 24-strike in Buenos Aires, July 19, 2001. The General Workers Confederation and other major worker organizations are protesting 1.4 billion in cuts this year as the government aims for "zero deficit". REUTERS/Alejandro Kaminetzky R