MCI has asked a U.S. bankruptcy judge for a 60-day extension to the Feb. 28 deadline for the company to emerge from bankruptcy, the company announced Wednesday.

An extension to the deadline, mutually agreed to by the company and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, would give MCI time to complete financial filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The financial filings are the last major task left for MCI to emerge from bankruptcy, according to the company.

"We have made incredible progress on the reconstruction of our financial statements, but it is much more important for us to get them done correctly rather than quickly," Bob Blakely, MCI executive vice president and CFO, said in a statement.

MCI, still officially known by its prebankruptcy name WorldCom, has resolved its accounting statements for 2002 and is nearly ready to file that paperwork with the SEC, Blakely said. The company is working on its 2003 SEC filings.

MCI filed for bankruptcy in July 2002, about a month after the company disclosed that a group of former employees had altered accounting records to conceal losses and inflate earnings.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.