A delegation from the International Monetary Fund has left Moscow after another round of talks failed to reach agreement on releasing fresh credits.

The chief Russian negotiator, the deputy finance minister Oleg Vyugin, said the IMF had postponed discussion about the exact size of a future loan.

But Mr Vyugin said the government's budget for next year assumed it would be much larger than was likely.

He said the IMF calculated that Russia had over-estimated its revenueby two-point-four-billion dollars.

Mr Vyugin said Russia had also failed to make progress in persuading the IMF to reschedule nearly five-billion dollars in old loans that fall due next year.

The IMF suspended a multi-billion dollar loan in August after Russia devalued the rouble and defaulted on part of its debt.