BUENOS AIRES/WASHINGTON Jan 28 (Reuters) - Argentina sought on Monday to secure vital U.S. financial support while thousands of jobless protesters marched against a government caught between the demands of the IMF and its recession-weary people.

With the sound of beating drums in the background, several thousand unemployed Argentines gathered by the presidential palace and blocked highways to demand jobs in the latest protest against President Eduardo Duhalde as he battles to jump start the economy after a traumatic currency devaluation.

IMF Managing Director Horst Koehler on Monday again urged Argentine authorities to develop a comprehensive and coherent economic strategy that the lender can back with new loans.

In Washington, Foreign Minister Carlos Ruckauf met with National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice in the first major, face-to-face diplomacy by the new Argentine government, desperate to win billions of dollars in International Monetary Fund aid to avoid a possible collapse of its banking system.

Duhalde, less than a month into the job, has pleaded for patience amid daily protests and legislators are insulted and attacked by angry mobs blaming the four-year recession on politicians of any hue.

"(Duhalde) will have to choose between the policies of ... President George W. Bush and the Argentine people," said Luis D'Elia, a leader of the Argentine Workers Association, a militant unemployed group that organized Monday's march.

A recession combined with an unpopular freeze on bank deposits has bankrupted thousands of businesses in Latin America's No. 3 economy, hitting blue- and white-collar workers alike.

Groups of unemployed, led by cellphone-wielding militants organizers, have gained support as they block major highways in Argentina. On Friday, tens of thousands of middle class Argentines took to the streets to protest.

ARGENTINA, IMF SEEK COMMON GROUND

Duhalde, the fifth president since December, must also persuade the IMF that the government will cut spending and will not place an unfair burden on foreign investors, who are expected to lose billions of dollars from the devaluation.

The government, worried strict fiscal policies could spark social upheaval, will be keen to avoid diplomatic mud-slinging with the IMF that has dominated the headlines this month.

"Argentina is a country that will comply with the rules of the game," Ruckauf told local media, adding that Economy Minister Jorge Remes Lenicov would later travel to Washington to discuss the details of the government's economic plans.

Ruckauf also met with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick on Monday, and the pair agreed to form a bilateral trade and investment council to resolve trade disputes between the two nations, officials said.

He is due to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill on Tuesday.

U.S. support is vital if the multilateral lender is to give financial aid to Argentina. Claudio Loser, head of the IMF's Western Hemisphere Department, will arrive in Argentina this week to discuss working out an IMF-supported economic program.

IMF officials are worried by some government policies, especially a bill being debated in Congress that would effectively ban most foreign bond payments by companies.

However with the IMF ready to help, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank both said they stood ready to speed up lending to Argentina for pressing social needs. Both lenders said they each had about $1 billion of loans that could be redirected for social uses if Argentina requests the funds.

Argentina's crisis has hit bottom-lines of foreign firms, especially banks. On Monday, the Spanish daily El Pais said water and waste treatment company Aguas de Barcelona could lose 32 million euros ($27.7 million) due to the troubles.

Moody's Investors Service said on Monday that would put 26 bond issuers, including some of Argentina's biggest firms such as Telefonica de Argentina , at risk of default.

The Peronist government, historically entwined with working-class movements, has awakened hopes that it will come to the aid of the unemployed and Duhalde is mindful that street protests have overturned his elected predecessor.

The freeze of bank deposit savings, effectively cutting the value of dollar savings by at least 20 percent, is also a rally point for protests and contributed to the fall of President Fernando de la Rua in December, heralding political chaos.

IMF criticism of the new dual exchange rate, however, has provoked a sharp exchange of words from government officials and made "Stuff the IMF" one of the loudest chants when Argentines banged pots and pans last Friday in the biggest nationwide protest yet against Duhalde.

Central Bank chief Mario Blejer was quoted on Monday as saying that the bank will be independent and responsible in its attitude to printing money to finance government spending.

"The central bank can now print money to finance government operations and assist banks... (but) this is not to say the central bank will do that," Blejer told the Financial Times. "I really intend to be independent, very responsible."

"I am absolutely certain we can prevent hyperinflation," he said. The country may eventually adopt an inflation-targeting system, similar to Brazil's, but it would not be ready to do so before 2003, Blejer added.

Deputy Economy Minister Jorge Todesca said on Monday the budget forecasts inflation of around 15 percent in 2002, after years of either zero inflation or deflation. Prices are expected to have fallen last year as demand slumped and the one-to-one dollar peg aggravated the recession. Nampa-Reuters