COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will retain his finance minister portfolio and lead talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a loan programme to find a way out of a devastating economic crisis, two sources said on Wednesday.

"Ranil Wickremesinghe will be sworn in as finance minister by the president today (Wednesday) morning," a source said, declining to be named.

In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, Wickremesinghe said he will present an interim budget within six weeks, slashing infrastructure projects to re-route funds into a two-year relief programme.

(Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe; Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Tom Hogue)