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Athens. Greece raced on Friday to clinch a debt deal with private creditors ahead of a Monday euro zone meeting as it opened talks with EU-IMF bailout partners on a new loan to avert a March default.

Prime Minister Lucas Papademos met again with global bank group representatives after late-night talks on Thursday as his finance minister held talks with senior EU-IMF auditors on a new euro zone rescue loan.

“We are in a very critical negotiation happening in a very short time frame,” government spokesman Pantelis Kapsis told private Radio 9. “We hope it will conclude very soon,” he said.

The Athens stock exchange opened with small gains on Friday and hovered around 1 percent in midday trading.

Greece is seeking to slash around 100 billion euros ($129 billion) from its huge debt through a voluntary bond swap with creditors, a process that would unlock a new euro zone rescue package worth 130 billion euros overall.

Athens wants an outline of the deal to be ready by Monday, when euro zone finance ministers are scheduled to meet, and a full agreement by January 30 when the European Union will hold a summit. Greece has a looming loan repayment worth 14.3 billion euros on March 20 which it cannot honor without financial assistance. It hopes to draw 89 billion euros from the rescue package next month to meet payment needs and recapitalize Greek banks hit by the debt swap.

The International Institute of Finance, a group representing around 450 financial institutions worldwide, on Thursday said “progress” had been made and that discussions will continue again on Friday. Under the so-called private-sector initiative (PSI), banks and other financial institutions are expected to take at least a 50 percent “haircut” on their Greek debt, which would remove about 100 billion euros from Athens’s massive debt burden of more than 350 billion euros.

The talks have hinged on the interest rate to be offered for new bonds that will replace maturing debt that is being erased. A deal seems close on a flexible rate of around four percent, Greek newspapers said on Friday.

In a sign an agreement is at hand, the IMF on Thursday said it was ready for talks on additional rescue funds to avert default.

Agence France-Presse