The Greek parliament has approved a law on a historic €107bn debt write-down with private creditors, a key element in a new eurozone bailout designed to avoid default.
The law sets rules and procedures for the debt restructuring and opens the way for parliament to take up legislation on further austerity cuts and tough targets required to get another €130bn in loans by 2014.
The vote on the private sector debt restructuring was not in doubt as the two coalition government partners, the Socialists in PASOK and the conservative New Democracy party, have 193 of 300 seats in parliament.
Three leftist parties as well as the extreme right opposed the bill, saying it would "be profitable for banks and monopolies and not the population," according to communist deputy Thanassis Pafilis.
Eurozone finance ministers agreed on Tuesday to provide Athens with loans of €130 billion euros, coupled with a 53.5% write-down of privately-held Greek sovereign bonds which should slash €107bn from its total debt mountain of €350bn.
During a six-hour long parliamentary debate, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos urged unity as a way to "regain our pride and confidence of the markets."
The law details terms of the so-called Private Sector Involvement accord, agreed during the marathon talks in Brussels.
The government hopes that 66% of private creditors will sign up to the bond swap deal, allowing Athens to impose a Collective Action Clause to force hold-outs to accept the swap and losses as well.
Mr Venizelos said an official offer to creditors had to be made by Friday, so a debt swap could be concluded by 12 March for maturities governed by Greek law, and by early April for debt issued under English and Japanese law.
In the immediate term, the rescue package should be enough to avert a default by enabling Greece to repay maturing debt worth €14.43bn on 20 March.
Athens has until the end of February to approve more than €3bn in additional spending cuts and amend the constitution to ensure that debt repayments take priority over other government commitments, as demanded by the eurozone finance ministers.
