Beirut reports positive IMF meeting, Minister says

Lebanese Finance Minister Yassine Jaber on Thursday said his government had good meetings this week with the International Monetary Fund and remained committed to working toward a lending program.

Current events, including massive strikes by Israel on Lebanon, had delayed the process, Jaber told Reuters on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank spring meetings in Washington, but he added that officials were committed to moving forward on steps needed to secure a program.

"Our aim as a government is to reach an agreement with the IMF on a program," Jaber said. "We will start with an SLA (staff-level agreement) and then progress to a program."

He said the war is estimated to have caused $7 billion in damages. It was unclear how much further damage had been inflicted, but it was huge, Jaber added.

Jaber said Lebanon was working with the World Bank to provide a rapid damage assessment, but added that the attacks had to stop first. Israeli forces destroyed a major bridge on Thursday and last week's strikes on Beirut came with no warning.

The sides agreed to a 10-day ceasefire earlier on Thursday aimed at halting a conflict between Israel and the Iran-aligned Lebanese group Hezbollah that was reignited by the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.