REYKJAVIK, Iceland — Just months after an epic banking collapse forced Iceland into the arms of the International Monetary Fund, this island nation is locked in a fierce debate over how to pay off its creditors without ceding too much of its vaunted independence.

The balance Iceland strikes between bowing to the policy demands of the global financial community and satisfying the desires of its increasingly resentful population of 300,000 . . .

“This is an attack on our sovereignty,” said Ogmundur Jonasson, the country’s health minister. “It reminds me of old colonial times. Gordon Brown had no harsh words for the United States when Lehman Brothers went down and billions of pounds went to the U.S. That was friendship — this is ‘Take the little guy and nail him to the wall.’   27-Jul-09.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/business/global/28iceland.html?_r=1