(CNN) -- The International Monetary Fund's executive board has approved the sale of up to one-eighth of its gold holdings -- about 403.3 metric tons -- with proceeds going toward a new income model and financing for low-income nations.

Such gold sales would be done in a "responsible and transparent" manner to avoid disruptions of the international gold market, Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said, according to a statement from the IMF on Friday.

The 186-member institution is the third largest official holder of gold after the United States and Germany, an article in IMF Survey Magazine online reported.

The sales would adhere to the Central Bank Gold Agreement, under which participants could sell 400 tons annually and 2,000 tons during the five years starting on September 27, according to the IMF statement.

The new income model would make the IMF less dependent on lending revenue to cover