Turkey will clear its remaining $1.3 billion (804 million pounds) of debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by next April, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told a ruling party congress on Sunday.

In the past the Turkish government relied on IMF loans to meet financial shortfalls, but it has managed to do without the aid since 2008. It has been gradually reducing its debts to the fund, which stood at $1.9 billion in late May.

"We took over $23.5 billion of debt. As of now we have $1.3 billion of debt and we will cut it to zero in April. We are holding technical discussions now," Erdogan told party members at the congress.

Turkey's last standby agreement with the fund was in 2005 and expired in May 2008.

(Reporting by Jonathon Burch and Seda Sezer in Istanbul; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by David Goodman)