Russia has reached agreement with creditor governments on rescheduling $8 billion of Soviet era debt and a promise of talks to find a "comprehensive" solution to the debt problem.

"This agreement . . . is an extremely important agreement for Russia and the Paris Club" of creditor governments, Paris Club chairman Francis Mayer said after four days of marathon talks in Paris which included an all-night session on Friday.

"The debts treated in this agreement amount to around $8 billion of arrears and amounts falling due up to the end of 2000," the Paris Club said in a statement.

Mr Mayer said the debts will now be repaid over 15-20 years.

The creditor governments also agreed to begin talks by the autumn of next year to find "comprehensive solutions" to the Soviet-era debt problem "at a later stage, once Russia has established conditions that enable it to implement a more ambitious economic reform programme," Mr Meyer said. Mr Mayer said the rescheduling agreement covered about two-thirds of Russia's total debt payments of $12 billion falling due to the end of 2000, including debts of the Russian Federation as well as debts inherited from the former Soviet Union.