(PTI): The International Monetary Fund (IMF) makes public its intention to help poor countries cope with the global economic crisis by making more money available.

The IMF announced plans on Wednesday to mobilize up to US $17B in new resources between now and 2014. The IMF will increase lending to 80 of the world’s poorest countries, while temporarily freezing interest payments on outstanding balances for 60 low-income countries over the next 30 months.

Lending in 2009 and 2010 is likely to hit $8 billion, and will rise between $2 billion and $2.5 billion annually after that, through 2014.

The measures are adopted partly in reaction to calls from the G20 countries at their summit in April for increased lending to poor countries.

“This is an unprecedented scaling up of IMF support for the poorest countries, in sub-Saharan Africa and all over the world,” IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said.

The measures “should prevent millions of people from falling into poverty,” he added.

The IMF statement also said that the global financial downturn was jeopardizing the “remarkable economic progress” accomplished by many poorer nations.