Zambia’s finance minister has rejected a call by China for the World Bank and other multilateral lenders to join a restructuring of the country’s debt and warned that delays to the relief are holding back economic recovery in Africa’s second-biggest copper producer.

Situmbeko Musokotwane said in an interview that “time is of the essence” to finish a restructuring of about $13bn of external debt this year, three years after the southern African nation defaulted on it. He signalled that Beijing’s demand was a distraction from talks on specific terms for reducing the loans.

“Discussions at higher levels like those just make our situation worse, because what we are looking for is urgent solutions, not discussions that may drag out the matter,” Musokotwane said. “We should all just focus on and get the debt [relief] delivered.”