The Russian government has postponed until Thursday a meeting it was to have held today to discuss next year's budget.

No reason was given for the delay, but Russian media reports say that it is linked to the visit to Moscow this week of the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Michel Camdessus.

The reports say the final shape of the budget will depend on the IMF's position on restructuring Russia's external debt and releasing fresh credits.

The IMF has been highly critical of the budget plans for tackling the country's economic crisis and has frozen a multi billion dollar credit package