WASHINGTON (AFP) - The International Monetary Fund has agreed to release 900 million dollars to Romania, as part of a loan to help the country weather the economic crisis, a Romanian official told AFP Friday. The (IMF) executive board voted in favor of the 900 million euro disbursement, said Mihai Tanasescu, Bucharests representative to the Washington-based fund. It is the sixth slice of a loan agreed between the IMF, European Union, World Bank and Romania in 2009, worth a total of 20 billion dollars. The country is grappling a deep economic crisis, which has seen the introduction of austerity plans that have resulted in mass protests against the government. On Wednesday President Traian Basescu said Romania will stick to an unpopular austerity plan despite public anger and could delay eurozone entry to avoid a Greek-style crisis. The biggest issue facing Romania is restoring the macroeconomic balance, he stressed, adding that the government is spending more than it can afford on social security. Although the Balkan country has pledged to trim the budget deficit to 3.0 percent by 2012 in line with EU criteria the president said euro adoption could be postponed by one or two years beyond the current target of January 2015 following this years debt crisis in Greece. In order to fill a 5.7 billion euro (7.6 billion dollar) budget shortfall forecast for next year, Romania plans launching a eurobond issue. The country hopes IMF backing will help it overcome tough borrowing rates in the wake of the Greek fiscal crisis. Romania is out of recession but expects the economy to shrink by up to 1.9 percent in 2010, after a 7.1-percent contraction last year.