FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund should not sell or revalue its gold reserves to fund debt relief for poor countries, Germany's Bundesbank said on Monday.

A Bundesbank spokesman confirmed that a document quoted in the Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung on Monday warning about the consequences of using gold reserves for development aid is the official position of Germany's central bank.

According to the four-page internal document, the newspaper said, the Bundesbank is opposed to any sale or revaluation of the IMF's 103.4 million ounces of gold reserves, valued on its books at around $9 billion but worth about $42.3 billion at today's prices.

"We have always indicated the IMF is not a development organisation and that its general reserves, which come from central bank stocks, should not be used for development aid," the document was quoted as saying.

Finance chiefs of the Group of Seven nations have asked IMF Managing Director Rodrigo Rato to report this month on the British proposal to use gold stocks to cancel debts of the world's poorest nations.

The United States, the biggest holder of gold bullion, is opposed to the plan. Germany's government has said it remains open to using IMF gold reserves for aid.

The Bundesbank said the high unrealised gains of the IMF's reserves were important to give extra security to IMF creditors and allowed donor countries to give additional resources.

"A continuing erosion of the unrealised gains must inevitably have negative consequences for the future financing ability of central banks," the document said.

"If this proposal goes ahead it raises fears that the whole unrealised value of the gold reserves could be used up within a few years."

The IMF has said 13 million to 16 million ounces of gold could be sold without disrupting markets.

The Bundesbank announced in December it would sell just eight tonnes of its quota of 120 tonnes of gold in the first year of the five-year accord among European central banks.

The European Central Bank sold 47 tonnes of gold last week, the first time it has sold gold reserves.