Dubai World has secured agreement from more than 60 per cent of its creditors to reschedule its debt repayments, a top government executive said on Thursday, just short of the two-thirds assent needed to change the existing terms.

The state-owned conglomerate has been in talks with lenders to extend the maturity of the largest single repayment under a $25 billion debt restructuring agreement struck in 2011, with a series of incentives offered in exchange.

Mohammed Al-Shaibani, the chief executive of sovereign fund Investment Corp of Dubai, confirmed Dubai World had proposed to extend its 2018 maturity for "about three to four years". He made the remarks in an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of an investment event.

Al-Shaibani added that ICD, which holds stakes in some of the emirate's most well-known brands including Emirates airline, was unlikely to purchase further assets from other Dubai state-owned entities - a tactic which the Dubai authorities had been using to support indebted firms.  - Reuters