Argentinian President Eduardo Duhalde is considering returning to a fixed exchange rate to help halt an alarming slide in the value of the peso.

IMF managing director Horst Koehler said a team will be sent to Argentina in May to negotiate the letter of intent.

Finance officials from the world’s seven top industrial powers agreed today on the need to intensify their efforts to combat terrorist financing but sharp differences remained over how to improve foreign aid programmes.

Argentina’s economy minister announced a sharp devaluation of the peso, overriding foreign investors’ concerns and ending a decade-long policy pegging the currency one-to-one with the US dollar.