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.