President Traian Basescu said Sunday that he will not submit to Parliament the letter of intent of the Romanian Government to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) unless the principle of not affecting the structural deficits of the public healthcare and pension funds is observed.

'You are close to the end of your mission, so far as I understand. I would like to know what the overall picture looks now. Anyway, as I discussed with the finance minister, the key element of your disbursements in the period immediately ahead should not affect the structural deficits of the public healthcare and the public pension funds. As far as I am concerned, this is an essential element. I will refuse to submit the letter to Parliament, unless this principle is observed. In other fields, as I understand, there is not much progress with reforming the Government-owned enterprises, but the programme was renegotiated over the past days. Let us hope that we will be successful in the period immediately ahead,' Basescu said at the beginning of a meeting with a joint delegation of the IMF, the World Bank and the European Commission conducting a review of a stand-by arrangement between Romania and the three entities.

Basescu welcomed on Sunday at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace the visiting joint delegation. Also attending the meeting were Finance Minister-designate Florin Georgescu, state secretary with the Finance Ministry Gheorghe Gherghina, Romania's representative with the IMF Mihai Tanasescu and National Bank of Romania (BNR) official Adriana Marinescu.

Basescu also welcomed the delegation on April 26 to discuss the prospects for restoring public wages.