Finance Minister seeks to renegotiate Greece's huge debt obligations

PanARMENIAN.Net - The economist-turned-finance minister seeking to renegotiate Greece's huge debt obligations says his priority is the well-being of all Europeans and has ruled out accepting more bailout cash, BBC News reports.

After talks with his French counterpart, Yanis Varoufakis said a new debt deal was needed within months. Michel Sapin said France was ready to help Greece settle with its creditors.

Greece's leftist anti-austerity Syriza party won the Jan 25 election with a pledge to write off half the debt.

Greece still has a debt of €315bn - about 175% of gross domestic product - despite some creditors writing down debts in a renegotiation in 2012.

Beginning his first swing around European capitals and finance hubs in Paris, Varoufakis is to travel next to London and Rome for more talks. His comments follows remarks on Saturday, Jan 31, by new Greek PM Alexis Tsipras, who said he was confident Greece could reach a deal with creditors.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has ruled out debt cancellation, saying creditors had already made concessions.

At a news conference in which Sapin reiterated that "there is no question of cancelling the Greek debt", Varoufakis said Greece and its partners had to proceed "with one objective in mind - the prosperity of the average European citizen".

He added that he wanted a new plan for fiscal stimulus in place by the end of May, with repayment of existing debt tied to Greece's ability to restore growth.

He ruled out Greece receiving a new tranche of the bailout package.

"It's not that we don't need the money, we're desperate because of certain commitments and liabilities that we have," he said. "We have resembled drug addicts craving the next dose. What this government is all about is ending the addiction."

Varoufakis said he would visit several European capitals, including Berlin, as he sought agreement on Greece's debts.

He added he would negotiate separately with the European Commission, the IMF and the European Central Bank but not with officials representing all three - the so-called "troika", which he described as a "committee of technocrats".

The troika agreed a €240bn ($270bn) bailout with the previous Greek government.

Austerity measures imposed in an effort to manage the debt have prompted outrage in Greece and led voters to reject the previous government. Instead Greeks convincingly voted Syriza into power after an election campaign dominated by the party's message of change.

In interviews in the German media published on Saturday, Merkel said she still wanted Greece to stay in the eurozone but did not "envisage fresh debt cancellation".

Greece's current programme of loans ends on Feb 28. A final bailout tranche of €7.2bn was still to be negotiated but the new government has already begun to roll back austerity measures.