SEOUL Analysts said Friday they were doubtful the government could fulfill its commitment to complete economic restructuring plans by the end of February following an IMF warning about the slow pace of reform, according to an AFP dispatch.

The International Monetary Fund warned Thursday that South Korea's sluggish pace of corporate and financial restructuring was dragging down the economy.

Finance and Economy Minister Jin Nyum, after being made deputy prime minister and handed greater powers this week, vowed to meet the end-February deadline for finalizing reform plans.

But analysts, noting the reform efforts have been losing momentum, remained reluctant to give a full vote of confidence to the government's efforts to revamp the country's corporate, financial and labor sectors.

"The markets have not shown much confidence in the commitment," Huh Chan-Guk of the Korea Economic Research Institute said.

"It's virtually impossible to wind up the economic restructuring within such a short period of time."

Choo Hee Yup of Dongwon Securities said Jin's commitment to meeting the deadline should be taken as "a strong expression of will" by the government to carrying out flagging economic reforms.

"The restructuring is not something to be determined by deadlines but a continuing process carried out with a strong will and tangible results," Choo added.

South Korea's financial system was on the brink of collapse in late 1997 and was put under a three-year IMF reform program in return for a 58-billion-dollar bailout.

The IMF assessment of South Korea Thursday noted a recent deterioration in domestic and foreign confidence in the economy.

"The decline in confidence is largely related to the perception of a lack of tangible results in corporate and financial sector restructuring, combined with a worsening of the external environment," it said.

But Jin said in a speech to an economic forum Wednesday that the government had reinvigorated reform efforts and was confident of meeting the end of month deadline.

"Despite the criticism that we are being unrealistic, we have worked out detailed timetables. By the end of this February, we plan to establish a big framework for reforms of the key sectors."

The IMF advised management and creditors of South Korean companies to focus on reducing corporate debt, selling non-core assets and operational restructuring that would enable firms to return to profitability.

Banks should press for liquidation of non-viable companies, with greater reliance on court-supervised insolvency to speed up the reorganization of struggling but salvageable businesses, the fund said.

It urged authorities not to put pressure on creditors to bail out failing firms and to maintain "an open attitude" to foreign involvement in the restructuring process, AFP said.