BUENOS AIRES -- President Eduardo Duhalde admitted Saturday that Argentina will not be able to make a firm accord with the IMF until the next elected government comes into power in mid-2003.

"Lasting agreements (with the IMF) must be signed by the next authorities who take power in May (25) of next year," following presidential elections on March 30, 2003, Duhalde said on radio.

The Argentine president said that negotiations with the International Monetary Fund are barely moving forward, but that his government is "persevering" to reach a vital accord for the cash-strapped nation. "We are coming out of this crisis on our own, without any outside help." He said, however, it would be "much easier and quicker and would avoid a lot of suffering to people if we could get ourselves back into the international community."

Duhalde was a successor of elected former president Fernando de la Rua who resigned last December after riots over stringent economic measures left almost 30 people dead.

In the face of the ongoing crisis, Duhalde at the end of May announced he would call early elections, in order to strengthen the government.

Despite having defaulted on its foreign debt early this year, Argentina had managed to pay $10 billion to the lending organizations "and we are still persevering in the search for an agreement," Duhalde said.

Argentina, which is mired in its worst economic crisis for a century, is looking for the IMF to reschedule interest payments worth $14 billion on its debt until the end of 2003, AFP reported.