AMSTERDAM, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Iceland should first finalise a deal to repay Dutch savers of Landsbanki's internet bank Icesave before it can secure a loan from the International Monetary Fund, the Dutch Finance Ministry said on Wednesday.
The Netherlands and Iceland agreed last month that Iceland would compensate Dutch clients of Icesave for up to 20,887 euros ($26,360), with the Dutch government agreeing to loan money to Iceland to help fund the compensation scheme.
But Dutch Finance Minister Wouter Bos has told Dutch media it would help Iceland in its talks with the IMF if it quickly finalised the compensation deal with the Dutch government first, a ministry spokeswoman said.
"We are still talking to Iceland about the legal framework of the memorandum of understanding we signed in October because that still needs the finalisation of the legal documents," the spokeswoman said.
Under the terms of the deal, the Dutch government would loan Iceland 1.3 billion euros to cover its part of the compensation deal. Dutch authorities would then compensate depositors for anything above that amount up to 100,000 euros.
The ministry spokeswoman also said the Netherlands is in talks with other governments in similar positions, such as the UK, which also agreed a compensation scheme with Iceland last month for British Icesave depositors.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Financial Times reported without citing sources, that the IMF was withholding its backing for a loan to Iceland, adding that the decision had "been put back to an unknown date" and that no explanation for the delay had been provided by the IMF.
Iceland made a provisional deal for a $2 billion loan from the IMF on Oct. 24, but the deal has still not been approved by the fund's board, which has postponed the decision on the loan application several times.
(Reporting by Aaron Gray-Block, editing by Andy Bruce) ($1=.7921 Euro) Keywords: DUTCH ICESAVE/

(aaron.gray-block@thomsonreuters.com; +31 20 504 5001; Reuters Messaging: aaron.gray-block.reuters.com@reuters.net)

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