Senior officials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are due to hold talks with the Kenyan government on Tuesday about resuming aid to the country.

A spokesman for the Kenyan ministry of finance, Mohammed Lugh, said the IMF would meet President Mwai Kibaki to discuss an anti-corruption bill.

Both the IMF and the World Bank have told Kenya it must pass laws to tackle economic crimes before lending can be resumed.

Loans were suspended two years ago after the IMF complained of 'serious setbacks' in the fight against corruption.

Empty coffers

IMF's country representative for Kenya, Samwel Itam, said that the IMF delegation would include its director for Africa, Abdoulaye Bio-Tchane.

"Bio-Tchane will make a presentation on the current status of Kenya's relations with the IMF and also give preliminary views on the way forward after the discussions," Mr Itam said in a statement.

The country's new finance minister David Mwiraria told Kenyan Television that the government had inherited coffers that were almost empty.

He said his ministry had launched investigations into the legality of all payments made by the previous government before taking action.

Mr Kibaki was elected president on 27 December when his National Rainbow Coalition swept the Kenya National African Union party from power.