Zambia's President Hakainde Hichilema said on Monday that he was pleased China would co-chair a creditor committee during debt negotiations along with France, adding that a partial write-off of the country's $32 billion debt is being considered.

Hichilema said Zambia aims to avoid another debt default after it became in 2020 the first country in the pandemic era to default on its debt. Zambia is seeking a reduction in debt as part of the relief package and "all options are on the table", the president said.

"We borrowed way too much, it is one of our priorities to restructure our debt," Hichilema said during an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of the Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town.

Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane told Reuters that debt talks should end in June, a timeline analysts consider ambitious.

Zambia, Africa's second-biggest copper producer, is struggling with debt that has reached 120% of GDP.

Its debt was $31.74 billion at the end of 2021, according to official government data - of which $17.27 billion is external debt. China held $5.78 billion of the external debt.

Musokotwane had said previously the debt negotiations were "stalled" at IMF meetings last month, after the country secured a staff-level agreement on a $1.4 billion three-year credit facility with the fund in December. (Reporting by Clara Denina and Helen Reid in Cape Town; Additional Reporting by Rachel Savage; Editing by Susan Fenton)