Norway's government will offer additional financial resources to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to assist it in coping with the global financial crisis, reports reaching Stockholms from Oslo said on Saturday.

Norway's offer has a scope of up to 30 billion Norwegian kroner (about US$4.6 billion), Norwegian Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen said in a statement.

"Balance of payment support to countries that are especially hard hit by economic crisis is a core task for the IMF. Financial support from the IMF is important also for our neighbouring countries, for instance Iceland and Latvia," the minister said.

"It is natural for Norway, who has considerable international reserves, to contribute to this end," she added.

Halvorsen sent a letter to the managing director of the IMF about the Norwegian offer on Friday, according to the Norwegian Financial Ministry.

(Xinhua News Agency March 29, 2009)