Paris: Greece should get time to pay debts

Greece could be given more time to pay off its debt if it keeps its budget in balance and maintains promised reforms, French officials said yesterday.

In a series of statements spelling out Paris’s position days before talks with the new government of Alexis Tsipras, senior French officials ruled out any prospect of an outright cancellation of Greek debt.

“Cancelling the debt is an aberration, a renegotiation is on the table,” Finance Minister Michel Sapin told French daily Libération in an interview posted on its website.