Date set for meeting on Pakistan financial crisis

Abu Dhabi: Potential donors to Pakistan will meet in Abu Dhabi on November 17 to discuss urgent help in a financial crisis that has left the country needing billions of dollars in loans, the UAE foreign minister said on Thursday.

"It is an important conference," UAE Foreign Minister Shaikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan said , during a joint news briefing with his visiting German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

"It will be important for the Friends group to act quickly to shield Pakistan from the worsening impact of the financial crisis," he said through a translator, referring to the "Friends of Pakistan" group launched in New York last month.

Pakistan is facing a balance-of-payments crisis and has just a few weeks to raise billions of dollars in foreign loans needed to meet debt payments and pay for imports.

Steinmeier, whose tour has already taken him to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, welcomed progress towards new talks on Pakistan, which German diplomatic sources said would take place at the level of senior officials.

Germany and the UAE are members of the "Friends of Pakistan" group. Saudi Arabia confirmed on Tuesday that it would also attend the meeting in Abu Dhabi next month.

Steinmeier this week urged Pakistan to seek the help of the International Monetary Fund to tackle its financial woes and said Germany would be ready to help negotiate a deal.

Islamabad's seven-month-old government, running Pakistan after more than eight years under former army chief Pervez Musharraf, has been reluctant to go the IMF but has been looking for help from friendly governments.

Donors caught up with their own problems brought on by the global financial crisis apparently prefer to wait for IMF involvement, which would bring discipline by attaching conditions and targets, analysts say.

Pakistan has been in talks with the IMF in Dubai since last week but has yet to decide if it will seek extra IMF aid.