WASHINGTON (AFP) -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has struck a ""milestone"" deal with member countries allowing it to provide debt relief to Liberia, the fund announced Monday.

Member states have made pledges totaling more than 842 million dollars, the IMF said in a statement.
""Today's milestone is a critical step in moving Liberia onto a path toward comprehensive debt relief,"" IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the statement.
It was the first concrete achievement for the new IMF director, who took over his post on November 1.
Ravaged by a decade of civil war, Liberia has a multilateral debt of 1.5 billion dollars for a total debt of 3.7 billion.
By clearing Liberia's books of arrears accrued over years, the deal will allow the struggling country to gain access to loans and other assistance from the IMF, the World Bank and the African Development Bank.
Liberia is recovering from 14 years of a brutal civil war that killed 270,000 people and ended in 2003 after former warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor stepped down.
Despite difficult conditions, Liberia ""has established an encouraging track record of macroeconomic management and reforms,"" Straus-Kahn said.