The Greek finance ministry said today it had begun talks with private sector bondholders represented by the Institute of International Finance on a bond swap which aims to cut around €100 billion from its debt.

"Our goal is to structure a transaction that will attract the broadest possible support from the bondholder community," said Evangelos Venizelos, Greece's minister of finance.

"To this end, we will be listening to the IIF, other industry bodies and individual creditors' ideas about how best to design this transaction."

Reuters