ISTANBUL, October 4 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian and Icelandic delegations have failed to reach an agreement on a loan to Iceland but consultations will continue, the Russian finance minister said Sunday.
"We are continuing consultations," Alexei Kudrin told journalists after a meeting with his Icelandic counterpart Steingrimur Sigfusson.
A delegation from Iceland was in Moscow a year ago for a series of meetings to agree the terms for a loan that would allow Iceland's government to shore up its shaky national currency, the krona, which collapsed after the country was forced to nationalize its three main banks after they amassed debts of over $60 billion.
Iceland's foreign debt now is several times higher than the country's GDP. Iceland originally asked Russia for a 4 billion euro ($5.8 billion) loan, but after it received most part of the sum from Scandinavian countries and the IMF, the sum of the mulled loan went down to $500 million.
