from its lenders, giving the $5 billion satellite phone operator on the brink of liquidation 11 more days to keep its network operating and push ahead with its desperate search for another backer, a bankruptcy court ruled yesterday.

At a hearing in New York, the US Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan approved the interim financing plan proposed by Iridium, which expires March 17, and set a deadline of March 15 for Iridium to find new backers or a purchaser to rescue it from bankruptcy.

On Friday, the prospect of a final liquidation of Iridium, which once promised to provide wireless communications anywhere in the world, drew nearer when cellular communications pioneer Craig McCaw and his Eagle River investment group begged off a plan to buy Iridium. Iridium filed for bankruptcy in August 1999.

Iridium said Eagle River told the company the pullout was not a bargaining tactic, as some analysts had speculated.

"We're asking for a very small amount of money for the hope -- and that's all it is -- the hope that we can find another purchaser,'' Iridium attorney William Perlstein told the court.