WASHINGTON - The IMF announced Friday 624 million dollars in financing to the war-ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo to help support poverty-reduction efforts and promote economic growth.

The International Monetary Fund said its executive board had approved a three-year 551.45 million dollar loan to the country under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF).

The board also granted additional assistance of 72.68 million dollars under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HICP) Initiative to reduce the DR Congo's debt service payments to the IMF.

The moves pave the way for the DRC to potentially obtain around 9.0 billion dollars in debt relief, Brian Ames, the head of the IMF mission to DRC, said in a conference call.

The two debt relief programs were launched by the IMF and the World Bank to help poor countries get out from the stranglehold of servicing high debt burdens.

Successful completion of the first IMF review of the government's PGRF-supported economic program is a key requirement for the African nation to reach the so-called "completion point" under the HICP program.

Once the completion point is reached, the DRC can benefit from the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative, which provides for 100 percent relief on eligible debt from the IMF, the World Bank and the African Development Fund.

Under current conditions, and with the IMF financing, the DRC could reach the completion point and qualify for debt relief "hopefully by mid-year next year," Ames said.

At present, some 25 percent of DCR's 13.1-billion-dollar debt pile goes to servicing the debt, the IMF said, following a decade-long conflict.

At the end of 2008, publicly contracted or guaranteed external debt was an estimated 93 percent of gross domestic product.

"The Democratic Republic of the Congo has made important socio-economic progress since 2001, demonstrated by the political transition to a democratically elected government, robust rates of economic growth, and the taming of hyperinflation," the Washington-based institution said in a statement.

"Nonetheless, socioeconomic conditions remain poor; the country’s infrastructure is dilapidated; and the country's external debt is unsustainable," it said, adding that the global economic crisis had "further aggravated these conditions."

The IMF immediately provided to the DRC government some 79 million dollars of the new loan, which will be disbursed in a total of seven installments, Ames said.

The new loan "will support the authorities’ implementation of their poverty reduction and growth strategy and economic reform program," it said.

DRC authorities find it hard to control their huge country, which is beset by several armed groups active on its eastern border, an undisciplined army and crumbling infrastructure after years of war and mismanagement.

Some two million people are believed to have been killed in 10 years of warfare, according to non-governmental organizations.