WASHINGTON. June 5: The head of the International Mon-etaiy Fund said yesterday that he hoped the thorny issue of sales of gold from IMF reserves could be resolved before the fund's annual meeting in September, says Reuters.

Managing Director Michel Camdessus said the IMF would try hard not to move financial markets with gold sales. "If a decision is taken to sell gold, we will make every effort to ensure that such sales are conducted with minimal disruption to markets," he said.

Most major IMF member countries favour sales of up to 10 million ounces from the IMF's 103 million ounce gold stockpile. The money would be put in a trust fund and interest earned oh this cash would be used to toay for international debt relief programmes and for concessionary loans for poor countries.

The Ignited States is one of the main backers of the idea of selling gold sales, but its representative at the IMF cannot vote in favour of the idea unless the US Congress gives the sales its seal of approval.

Camdessus did not mention any of the obstacles to IMF gold sales by name, but stressed the need for speed in order to keep the concessionary lending programme running without inter-ruption.V'I'would hope to see a resolution of his question ... ahead of the IMF annual meetings in the fall." he said.