UPDATE 3-Zambia seeks investor consent for $3 billion bond rework

(Adds IMF comment in final paragraph)

JOHANNESBURG, May 13 (Reuters) - Zambia sought on Monday investor consent for a deal to restructure $3 billion of its international bonds, bringing it closer to finalising its long-delayed debt rework.

The southern African country in March struck a preliminary restructuring agreement with a group of holders of the 2022, 2024 and 2027 Eurobonds, but it had not yet asked all holders to vote on the proposal, a step called a "consent solicitation".

Zambia defaulted on its debts in late 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and its restructuring, which has been seen as a test of the G20's Common Framework process for reworking low income countries' debt, has been repeatedly held up.

The March deal proposed swapping three existing instruments into two amortising bonds, one of which would deliver higher repayments if the country's economic outlook and capacity to manage its debt burden improved.

A regulatory statement on the London Stock Exchange on Monday gave a voting deadline of May 30 and expected settlement date of June 11, after which the new bonds will trade.

Zambia's dollar-denominated sovereign Eurobonds rose on Monday, with the 2027 maturity trading 0.77 cents higher at 74.38 cents on the dollar by 1513 GMT, according to Tradeweb.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Monday an agreement between Zambia and the Eurobond-holders' creditor committee was "a significant step forward" and that such an agreement was in line with the parameters of an IMF-backed program the country was already implementing.

(Reporting by Anait Miridzhanian, Additional reporting by Libby George and Marc Jones in London; Editing by Alexander Winning, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Himani Sarkar)