The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss- Kahn, has said the group plans to raise lending to Africa and warned that the global economic crisis threatens political stability and even war on the poorest continent.

"Things start with economic problems," Strauss-Kahn said in an interview in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania last week. "From economic problems there's a small step to go to social unrest. And then another small step to having democracy at stake and with democracy at stake the risk of war is a real risk."

African currencies have been plummeting as global credit markets dry up, mining investment is scaled back and Western countries reduce aid to tl1e continent. The IMP in January cut its forecast for growth in Sub-Saharan Africa to 3.3 per cent for this year, more than 3 percentage points lower than estimated a year ago.

"My goal is to obtain a doubling of our capacity to lend to Africal1 countries in the coming year," Strauss-Kahn said. "I have to ask for more resources from the developed economies."

The IMP warned last week that poor countries may need $25 billion and possibly as much as $140 billion il1 emergency aid to weather the global financial crisis, with nations in Africa that depend on commodities, like Zambia, Ghana and Nigeria, being among the most vulnerable.

"The question in developing countries is not only a question of unemployment and purchasing power," Strauss-Kahn said. '1t's a question of life and death."