BUENOS AIRES, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Argentine officials will travel to the United States on Thursday to meet with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as the country renegotiates already-disbursed loans of about $44 billion, a government source told Reuters on Wednesday. The fund said at the end of November that it had begun to outline, together with Argentina, a new program to help the government face the country’s profound economic and social challenges, which have been aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. “Diego Bastourre, Ramiro Tosi and Mariano Sardi will travel to Washington on Thursday to hold meetings based on an agenda of strengthening and developing the capital market. In addition, technical exchanges with the IMF on the financing program are planned,” said the source on condition of anonymity. Bastourre is Argentina’s finance secretary. Tosi and Sardi hold the positions of undersecretary of finance and undersecretary of financial services, respectively. The delegation will also include Sergio Chodos, representative of Argentina to the IMF. The Argentine delegation may meet with private investors while in the United States as well, after having restructured about $100 billon in sovereign bonds this year. Argentina, hard hit by the pandemic, is entering its third year of recession while Argentines contend with high inflation and a peso currency that has weakened dramatically this year. (Reporting by Jorge Iorio and Jorge Otaola, writing by Hugh Bronstein, editing by Mark Potter)