Mohamed Nasheed

Wickremesinghe said the government was targeting $ 5 billion this year for repayments, plus a further $ 1 billion to bolster the country's reserves.

Maldives former President and parliament speaker Mohamed Nasheed was injured on Thursday in an explosion in capital Male, authorities said.

Nasheed is expected to travel on a speedboat from the airport island of Hulhule to the capital

The Maldives is in a political shambles. It is courting China and Saudi Arabia with gusto

He was Maldives' first democratically elected leader in 2008 and was toppled in a coup backed by military and police