Company officials in Las Vegas have said that MGM Mirage has been given two more years to repay part of a $4.37 loan that was to come due in October 2011.

Dan D'Arrigo, Chief Financial Officer of MGM Mirage, said that the extension by lenders is a "milestone" in efforts to improve the company's balance sheet, which has about $12.5 billion in debt,.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that the lenders -- led by Bank of America Corp., Royal Bank of Scotland, and JP Morgan -- have amended the terms of the loan eight times to help MGM Mirage complete its $8.5 billion City Center project on the Las Vegas Strip.

D'Arrigo said," We're not out of the woods but the banks clearly have put a lot of faith in our company."

D'Arrigo further said that MGM Mirage must increase interest payments from 6 percent to 7 percent and pay back about $820 million by June. Las Vegas has been hard hit by the recession with casino operators conflicted on whether the economy in "sin city" will improve at all this year. (With input form agencies)