Athens needs to receive the funds by March 20, when its next debt repayment of 14.5 billion euros in bonds is due. 'But the success of the offer is in everyone's interest.'Д®urozone finance ministers are to hold a conference call on Friday to decide whether to release the 130-billion euro bailout. 'It is impossible to be certain of the outcome of such a process,' French bank BNP Paribas' Greek debt negotiator Jean Lemierre told the daily paper Le Monde. However, just hours before the deadline, doubt remained about whether enough creditors would sign on to the deal. 'This demonstrates the growing support for the agreements reached in February.' Thu 15.22 EST 64 Greece and its private-sector creditors are involved in a race against time to finalise a debt writedown deal over the next 48 hours that will prevent the troubled. But it faces resistance from banks over plans for a greater private sector participation in Greek debt restructuring and moves to force banks to raise capital. 'I welcome the statement by key creditor groups of their decision to participate in the voluntary debt exchange,' Olli Rehn, the EU's economic and monetary affairs commissioner, said in a statement. Greek debt write-down must be larger, German FinMin says. Apart from that, I am now waiting to see what concepts the Greek government will present.To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video 'To that end, Greece and the European partners make their contribution. 'The goal of our policy was and is that Greece remains a permanent part of the euro-community,' Merkel said.

She put the onus on the new Greek government to present a credible economic policy. 22 decision to pump billions of euros into the euro zone with a bond-buying program did not mean countries would end efforts to shape up their economies with structural reforms. 'Greece's program extension will expire in the end of February so some kind of solution must be found, otherwise we can't continue lending,' Liikanen, also the governor of Finland's central bank, told public broadcaster YLE. However, it allows central bank financing to Greek banks as the country is in a bailout program.Д®rkki Liikanen, a member of the ECB's policymaking Governing Council, said that funding, too, could dry up if Greece does not remain in a program. The ECB does not accept Greek sovereign bonds as collateral in its refinancing operations as they are below investment grade. A failure to renew it could leave Athens unable to meet its financing needs and cut its banks off from central bank liquidity support. Separately, the French finance ministry said on Saturday that Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis will meet with his French counterpart Michel Sapin in Paris on Sunday and issue a statement afterwards.Д®urope's bailout program for Greece, part of a 240 billion euro rescue package also involving the International Monetary Fund, expires on Feb. Greece's new government opened talks on its bailout with European partners on Friday by refusing to extend the program or to cooperate with the international inspectors overseeing it. But it faces around 10 billion euros of debt repayments over the summer. Unable to tap the markets because of sky-high borrowing costs, Athens has enough cash to meet its funding needs for the next couple of months. Without the support of international lenders, Greece would soon find itself back in an acute financial crisis. 'Europe will continue to show solidarity for Greece, as for other countries hit particularly hard by the crisis, if these countries undertake their own reforms and savings efforts,' Merkel added in a thinly veiled threat to Athens. I don't see a further debt haircut,' she told German daily Die Weltin in an interview published in its Saturday edition. 'There was already a voluntary waiver by private creditors Greece has already been exempt from billions by the banks. Merkel flatly rejected such a possibility. Greece's prime minister, Alexis Tsipras has also promised to renegotiate agreements with the European Commission, ECB and International Monetary Fund 'troika' and write off much of Greece's 320 billion euro ($360 billion) debt, which at more than 175 percent of gross domestic product is the world's second-highest after Japan. The euro zone's paymaster and the ECB are both taking a tough line with Greece's new leftist government, whose leader swept to victory last Sunday promising that five years of austerity, 'humiliation and suffering' were over. BERLIN/HELSINKI (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel ruled out a debt writedown for Greece on Saturday, and a European Central Bank policymaker threatened to cut off funding to Greek banks if Athens does not agree to renew its bailout package.

Greek private debt writedown