The Islamic Republic of Mauritania was declared eligible to the Enhanced HIPC Initiative by the Executive Boards of the International Monetary Fund and the International Development Association in February 10, 2000 and was declared to have reached its completion point on June 18, 2002.

In this context, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania commits to seek promptly from all its external creditors which are not participating in the present Agreed Minute their appropriate contribution in terms of debt relief to the Enhanced HIPC Initiative, on top of traditional debt relief mechanisms and consistent with the proportional burden sharing based on their relative exposure in net present value of total external debt at decision point after the full use of traditional debt relief mechanisms.

The appropriate nature of the debt relief provided shall be assessed not only on the basis of the reduction in the net present value of the debt as computed under Appropriate Market Rate, but also on the terms of repayment of the debts not cancelled. For this purpose, all relevant elements shall be taken into account, including the level of cash payments received by those creditors as compared to their share in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania's external debt, the nature and characteristics of all treatment applied, including debt buy backs, and all characteristics of the reorganized claims and in particular their repayment terms whatever forms they take and in general the financial relations between the Islamic Republic of Mauritania and creditor countries not listed in the present Agreed Minute.

Consequently, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania commits not to accord any category of creditors -and in particular creditor countries not participating in the present Agreed Minute, commercial banks and suppliers- a treatment more favourable than that accorded to the Participating Creditor Countries.