LONDON - THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) is ready to help emerging economies hurt by the global financial crisis, its managing director, Dominique Strauss Kahn, said in an interview published on Friday.

'The crisis is now hurting a lot of emerging markets. Some of them may face balance of payments problems', he told the Financial Times.

'Many countries seem to be experiencing problems because of the repatriation of private capital by foreign investors or the reduction of credit lines from foreign banks', he said.

'We are ready to support these economies and we are in discussions with a number of them.'

Mr Strauss-Kahn added that he was not opposed to Asian countries seeking each other's support against the financial threat, as long as they were 'co-ordinated with multilateral institutions'.

The IMF chief said the organisation was also looking at ways it could lend money with fewer conditions than those usually applied to its loans.

'Conditionality is part of our business - since money without policies is a waste'. 'But these policies have to address the problem at stake and not other issues', the former French finance minister said.

'We are not trying to fix the world. We are trying to fix the problem.' -- AFP