Greece and investors who have bought its bonds have reached a tentative deal to significantly reduce the country's debt and pave the way for it to receive a much-needed 130 billion euros bailout.
Negotiators for the investors announced the tentative agreement Saturday and said it could become final next week.
Under the agreement, the 206 billion euros worth of Greek bonds that investors own would be exchanged for new bonds worth 60 percent less.
The agreement is a key step before Greece can get a second, 130 billion euros bailout from its European Union partners and the International Monetary Fund.
In Berlin on Saturday, an official said Germany is proposing that Greece temporarily cede sovereignty over tax and spending decisions to a powerful eurozone budget commissioner before it can secure further bailouts.
The idea was quickly rejected by the European Union's executive body and the government in Athens. But the German official said the initiative is being discussed among the 17-nation currency bloc's finance ministers because Greece has repeatedly failed to fulfill its commitments under its current $145 billion lifeline.
A government official in Athens said a similar proposal had been floated last year but got nowhere. Greece would not accept such a measure, he added.
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