UPDATE 2-Argentina seeks credit to grow, not plug gap-Boudou

(Adds IMF comment, background)

By Kevin Gray

BUENOS AIRES Aug 26 (Reuters) - Argentina wants to return to international debt markets this year to raise funds to drive economic recovery, not in a desperate move to plug financing gaps, Economy Minister Amado Boudou said on Wednesday.

Boudou said Argentina is not under pressure and can meet $13 billion in debt obligations next year.

"We want to return to voluntary credit markets, not to cover any gap and not because of any fiscal need, not to finance the current account, but to redouble efforts regarding basic infrastructure needs in our country," Boudou told reporters after he spoke at a Council of the Americas conference in Buenos Aires.

Boudou, who has been economy minister for just two months, has sent repeated messages to financial markets that Argentina wants to return to debt markets it has been largely shut out of since its huge 2001-2002 sovereign default.

Argentine bond prices recovered this year after a deep slump in 2008, when the government made a surprise nationalization of private pension fund administrators. But investors say they are waiting for signs that President Cristina Fernandez firmly supports Boudou's plans.

Argentina has increasingly met its financing needs by borrowing from state agencies and state-run banks. Credit Suisse estimates the country faces uncovered finance needs next year of $3.6 billion.

To issue new debt on international markets Argentina must restore credibility to its tarnished National Statistics Institute, INDEC, reopen a massive 2005 restructuring for hold-outs, re-establish relations with the International Monetary Fund and restructure debt with the Paris Club of wealthy creditor nations.

Boudou did not provide new details on how any of those situations would be resolved. But he said Argentina seeks a "mature relationship" with the IMF, one in which the country would have input, not just receive orders from the fund.

IMF Western Hemisphere Director Nicolas Eyzaguirre, who spoke at the same conference where Boudou appeared, was expected to meet on Wednesday with Boudou, who has said Argentina should take steps to repair relations with the fund.

Eyzaguirre told reporters that "Article IV is the base for all dialogue." Article IV is a review of economic policy and finances that the fund regularly does of its members.

President Fernandez and her husband and predecessor ex-President Nestor Kirchner say IMF policies are to blame for the country's collapse eight years ago and reject an Article IV review as meddling and trying to set conditions for lending.

Argentina is expected on Friday to launch a debt swap that would retire short-term inflation-indexed bonds.

Boudou said domestic demand is strong in Argentina and forecast "very strong" growth for 2010.

Most experts see Argentina's economy contracting this year, and the government reported that economic activity shrank in June and May.

(Reporting by Kevin Gray; Writing by Fiona Ortiz, Editing by Diane Craft and Dan Grebler)