LAGOS, Aug. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- The Nigerian government has assured its people that the 18-billion-dollar debt cancellation deal agreed in June by the country's Paris Club creditors was "true" and said that it would buy back the rest of that debt by March 2006.

    Mansur Muhtar, head of the country's Debt Management Office said while reacting to different criticisms over the debt relief that the deal "draws a line under the past and gives Nigeria a fresh start."

    "It is our second declaration of independence," Muhtar declaredin a paper obtained by Xinhua Thursday.

    The Paris Club had on June 30 issued a statement, saying it "would enter into negotiations with the Nigerian authorities in the months to come on a comprehensive debt treatment."

    "In September, when Nigerian officials go to the Paris Club for final discussions, 67 percent of the debt outstanding will be written off simultaneously with the payment of outstanding arrears due to the creditors, amounting to about 6 billion dollars," Muhtar said.

    This would reduce the debts owed to Paris Club to about 8 billion dollars, then, over a period of time, about six months, Nigeria will buy back the rest of that debt at a market-related discount estimated at some 6 billion dollars, said Muhtar.

    "So, it is clear: by the end of March 2006 ... Nigeria will have no more Paris Club debt on its books," he said. "And we will have emerged, independent, from the debt trap arising from past mismanagement."

    As Africa's top oil producer, Nigeria earns billions of dollars annually from oil but three-quarters of its 130-million-strong population still live in abject poverty on less than one dollar per day. Enditem