The Pakistani Finance Minister, Ishaq Dar, has told the BBC there is no truth to reports in the Pakistani and international media that Pakistan's next batch of loans from the IMF may be in jeopardy.

Mr Dar has left Saudi Arabia for talks with the IMF in Washington. In an interview with the BBC Urdu Service, Mr Dar said that the meeting with the IMF was routine.

Mr Dar said that Pakistan would receive over $280m from the IMF over the next six weeks.

His comments follow recent media speculation about the next tranche of loans which Pakistan is due to receive from the IMF.

One well-known Pakistani newspaper recently reported that a visit by an IMF delegation had been postponed, and that Islamabad would receive no further payments until at least September because of the effect on the economy of the Kashmir conflict.

The support Pakistan receives from the IMF is crucial to its economic survival and could even determine whether or not the country defaults on its foreign debts.

Last year, the IMF's $1.5bn lending programme was postponed following Pakistan's nuclear tests.

Speculation was rampant then that the country would de-fault.

Although that failed to happen, the country is still a long way away from economic stability.