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NEW DELHI, India -- Facing a grave economic crisis, the newly elected Indian government has begun urgent talks with the International Monetary Fund seeking emergency aid of several billion dollars.Yet the conditions for such assistance are stirring anxiety in this nation, which historically prides itself on self-reliance.At issue is not only the economy but also India's sensitivity to Western involvement. What makes the nation's plight especially delicate is the realization that, without bowing to Western conditions for economic change, India could slide into collapse.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - President Asif Ali Zardari returned from China late Friday without a commitment for hard cash needed to shore up Pakistan's crumbling economy, leaving him with the politically unpopular prospect of having to ask the International Monetary Fund for help. Pakistan was seeking the aid from China, an important ally, as it faces the possibility of defaulting on its current account payments. With the United States and other nations preoccupied with a financial crisis, and Saudi Arabia, another traditional ally, refusing to offer concessions on oil, China was seen as the last port of call before the IMF. Accepting a rescue package from the IMF would be seen as a humiliating step for Zardari's government, which took office last month.

WASHINGTON -- Economic policies advocated by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are contributing to a Third World environmental crisis that is undermining the very development strategies the international lenders seek to promote, according to a new study to be released today.Unless the major lending institutions begin to factor environmental considerations into their planning, their economic development strategies for the Third World will in the long run prove to be self-defeating, a two-year study by the World Resources Institute warns.

WASHINGTON - The World Bank and International Monetary Fund's debt relief program is flawed by its limited funding and the overly optimistic economic scenarios it predicts, a United Nations report said last week. Those flaws could leave the mostly African poor nations mired in debt even after getting some of their current debt written off, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development's annual report on the world's 48 poorest countries. "The only way this can be addressed is by putting more money into debt relief," said Charles Gore, author of the U.N. report.

When I told a woman I know that the jailed French economist who headed the International Monetary Fund was known in the French press as "the Great Seducer," she said that judging from what she has seen of him on television, he must have come up with that nickname himself. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, released on bail Thursday after being held under suicide watch in the notorious Riker's Island lock-up in New York City, certainly hasn't looked his best since cops hauled him off an Air France flight bound for Paris and charged him with the attempted rape and sodomizing of a chambermaid at a snazzy Manhattan hotel last weekend.

WITHOUT the International Monetary Fund, the Asian financial crisis would go deeper and spread further. It is impossible to be totally secure that it will not provoke recession here. But thanks to IMF rescue operations totaling more than $100 billion in Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea and the Philippines, these countries are reforming financial markets and opening up to the world. And at least in Thailand, the corner appears to have been turned.Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan and others have been crisscrossing Capitol Hill to sell the administration request for an $18 billion supplemental appropriation for the IMF this budget year.

WASHINGTON -- International Monetary Fund Managing Director Michel Camdessus said yesterday that the IMF plans to rush $2 billion to South Korea on Dec. 30 to help stabilize the nation's financial and currency markets.The money is an expedited payment coming before the next scheduled installment of another $2 billion on Jan. 8 if reforms by the South Korean government pass muster. It won't add to the almost $60 billion bailout put together by the IMF earlier this month. It will just replace an installment that had been set for later in 1998.

WASHINGTON -- The Group of Seven large industrial nations endorsed yesterday a U.S. plan to create a new line of credit at the International Monetary Fund that could be used to head off a financial crisis in Brazil.In a joint statement, leaders of the G-7 countries -- the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada -- embraced recommendations for changes in the way international financial transactions are regulated to prevent future economic crises, such as the one that began with the collapse of Asian currencies and stock markets in mid-1997.

WASHINGTON -- Young activists roving through soggy streets failed again yesterday to stop meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, but they succeeded in disrupting traffic, irritating office workers and hindering employers, including the federal government. Police skirmished with protesters throughout the day at intersections near the IMF and World Bank headquarters, firing pepper spray several times, setting off tear gas at least once and arresting more than 600. In an odd piece of street theater, several hundred demonstrators negotiated their arrests with police, who allowed them to cross a few feet past barricades -- technically breaking the law -- before taking them into custody.

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- For the third time in six months, Indonesia reached a new bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund yesterday, this time pledging to meet "to the letter" all commitments to reform its crisis-ridden economy.Disappointed by Indonesia's promises twice before, the IMF plans to monitor progress closely in the world's fourth most populous nation.Yesterday's compromise package came after three weeks of heavy bargaining. Indonesia showed new willingness to disband monopolies, while international lenders will allow Indonesia to cling to some subsidies to head off potential social unrest over rising prices.