By JIM ABRAMS (AP)

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jGvTRr6fGDAMG0fB-UUS8hx7PdGQD9F32DBG0

WASHINGTON — Con­gress is call­ing for the United States to take the lead in reliev­ing earthquake-shattered Haiti of its debts to inter­na­tional institutions.

The House approved by voice vote Wednes­day and sent to Pres­i­dent Barack Obama leg­is­la­tion that instructs U.S. direc­tors at the Inter­na­tional Mon­e­tary Fund and other global devel­op­ment insti­tu­tions to use their votes and influ­ence to can­cel Haiti’s debt.

Debt relief is one of sev­eral approaches to help­ing Haiti recover from the Jan­u­ary earth­quake that took an esti­mated 230,000 lives.

Con­gress is con­sid­er­ing leg­is­la­tion that would pro­vide some $2.8 bil­lion in new aid and the United Nations recently hosted a donors’ con­fer­ence where nearly 50 nations pledged about $9.9 bil­lion in assistance.

The debt relief bill, passed ear­lier by the Sen­ate, would urge the imme­di­ate and com­plete can­cel­la­tion of all debt owed by Haiti to multi­na­tional insti­tu­tions. It would also rec­om­mend that for the next five years aid to Haiti be pro­vided as grants rather than loans.

“There are many of us who look at this earth­quake as oppor­tu­nity,” said Rep. Max­ine Waters, D-Calif., spon­sor of the mea­sure. “We believe that there is now a real com­mit­ment by the world com­mu­nity to come to the aid of Haiti.”

The Trea­sury said that at the begin­ning of March Haiti owed $828 mil­lion to mul­ti­lat­eral devel­op­ment insti­tu­tions. Since then, the Inter-American Devel­op­ment Bank, which Trea­sury said was owed some $447 mil­lion, announced it would for­give all of Haiti’s debt and con­vert undis­bursed loans to the coun­try into grants.

The World Bank has said it is can­cel­ing the remain­ing $38 mil­lion in debt as part of a World Bank Group pack­age of $479 mil­lion being made avail­able to sup­port Haiti’s recov­ery and devel­op­ment. Since 2005 all World Bank aid to Haiti has been in grant form.

The Inter­na­tional Mon­e­tary Fund said after the donors’ con­fer­ence in New York that it was prepar­ing a pro­posal to orga­nize debt relief for Haiti’s total out­stand­ing debt of $271 million.

The bill is H.R. 4573.