Greece confident on EU-IMF funds: finance minister

Bailed-out Greece is confident it will get the next tranche of debt rescue funding from the EU and IMF despite the current economic and market turmoil, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said. "Greece's borrowing needs are covered ... meanwhile, our task is to carry on with our work during this crucial period and show ourselves to be responsible and effective," Venizelos told Sunday's edition of the Kathimerini daily. So far, Greece has received five tranches of EU and International Monetary Fund aid worth 65 billion euros ($93 billion) from a 110-billion-euro debt rescue accord agreed in May 2010 to save Athens from default. EU, IMF and European Central Bank officials will come to Athens later this month to review progress on the tough targets set down in the accord and say whether the sixth tranche of eight billion euros can be paid in September. The May 2010 bailout failed to stabilise Greek public finances and a second accord, worth 160 billion euros including 50 billion euros from the private sector, had to be agreed at an emergency eurozone summit last month. Since then, the debt contagion which also sank Ireland and Portugal, has spread to Italy and Spain, threatening to sink the euro as financial markets demand ever higher rates of return to provide weaker eurozone countries with fresh funding. Friday's unprecedented Standard and Poor's cut in its US credit ratings plus signs of slowing global economic growth have combined with the eurozone debt crisis to make a toxic mix which many fear will drive the world into recession. International leaders have been discussing the issues by telephone over the weekend, with the ECB reported to be holding a meeting at 1600 GMT Sunday in a desperate effort to come up with some sort of an answer before the financial markets open Monday. Venizelos said that Greece, while only a small part of the problem, is a key part to get right in tackling the global issues at stake. "It is all hanging by a thread ... the negotiations are delicate and difficult but everyone understands that solving the Greek problem ... is necessary to solving the global problem effectively," he said. Figures on Thursday showed that Greece is close to missing this year's deficit reduction targets, with the public deficit already at 14.69 billion euros by June, compared with a 2011 target of 16.68 billion euros.