Greece told to restructure its debt

GERMANY and France yesterday warned Greece that it will get no more bailout funds until it agrees with creditor banks on a bond swap and pressed for an early deal to avert a potential default in the eurozone’s most debt-stricken nation.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy, the eurozone’s two leading powers, insisted after talks in Berlin that private sector bondholders must share in reducing Greece’s debt burden, along with new European and IMF lending.

They rejected both a call by a European Central Bank policymaker to abandon plans to make private investors take losses, and a leaked IMF memo thatcast doubt on Athens’ ability to reform its public finances.

“We must see progress on the voluntary restructuring of Greek debt,” Ms Merkel told a joint news conference. “From our point of view, the second Greek aid package, including this restructuring, must be in place quickly.

“Otherwise it won’t be possible to pay out the next tranche for Greece.”

Ms Merkel and Mr Sarkozy both voiced their determination to press ahead with a tax on financial transactions opposed by Britain, but they appeared to diverge on the timing.

Mr Sarkozy, facing a strong left-wing challenge in his struggle for re-election in May, suggested France could go it alone and challenge other states to follow suit.

Ms Merkel said all 27 EU finance ministers should report in March, and the 17-nation eurozone should move ahead if other countries continued to block an EU decision. But she acknowledged that she did not have full agreement on this within her centre-right coalition government.

A Greek government official said talks with private bondholders on a debt swap key to averting default were progressing but there was no deal yet.

However, a senior insurance executive briefed on the negotiations said they were very difficult and likely to be unsuccessful.

Ms Merkel’s tough comments highlighted growing concern among European governments that a potential collapse of the Greek rescue negotiations poses the most immediate threat of destabilising the entire 17-nation euro currency and the global economy.

Ms Merkel and Mr Sarkozy said they aimed to wrap up negotiations among eurozone countries this month on a new fiscal pact tightening budget discipline, to be signed at the latest on March 1.

The latest draft would give more power to the European Commission to reject national budget plans that deviate from agreed EU targets.