International Monetary Fund member-countries last week cancelled the 268 million dollars debt Haiti owed to the IMF and approved a new loan worth 60 million dollars to boost international reserves in the earthquake-hit nation.

The IMF said in a statement that both steps will help Haiti’s reconstruction efforts following the devastating January 12 quake, which destroyed the capital Port-au-Prince and left 1.5 million people homeless.

The new three-year loan carries zero interest rate until the end of 2011, part of a scheme agreed in July 2009 to help poor countries needing IMF assistance.

After that rates will remain low.

IMF mission chief to Haiti, Corinne Delechat, said the IMF financing was not intended to ratchet up Haiti’s debts again but was intended to help the central bank manage volatility that could arise from large aid flows going into the country.

“The purpose of the Fund programme is not to provide resources for the reconstruction, because we’re not the best institution for that,” she said.

She noted that donor countries and institutions like the World Bank were able to provide grant handouts, which would not add to Haiti’s debts.

Delechat said the IMF programme did not restrict aid spending.

“All the spending that can be financed by donor money is allowed under the programme the idea is to facilitate the absorption of the aid,” she said.

The IMF said Haiti’s recovery after the quake was still fragile and the biggest contributor to economic growth would come from reconstruction efforts.

It forecast that the economy would expand by around nine per cent in fiscal year 2011-12, slowing to six per cent by 2015 as rebuilding tapers off.

In statement, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn urged donors to make good on their aid promises to Haiti, so that reconstruction can be accelerated and social tensions soothed.

Donors pledged 9.9 billion dollars to Haiti’s reconstruction at a conference in March, of which 5.3 billion dollars is to be disbursed over the next 18 months.