The Greek parliament has passed legislation to launch a debt swap for private bondholders which is at the core of the €130 billion bail-out agreed with euro zone partners this week.
Under a common procedure of Greek parliament, acting parliament speaker Anastasios Kourakis said the law passed automatically without a vote because the incumbent government has a majority and no request for a named vote had been made.
Earlier, EU officials said euro zone finance ministers would meet on March 1 in Brussels, the first day of an EU summit, to assess Greece's readiness for the bail-out.
Following approval of a heavily-conditioned €237 billion second rescue for Greece, "Eurogroup ministers will meet again on the morning of March 1 ahead of the European Council," an official told AFP.
Marathon Eurogroup talks that ended before dawn on Tuesday set a string of conditions that Greece must meet by February 29 if the 17-nation euro zone is to bail out Athens for a second time.
These conditions are mainly expected to revolve around legal provisions that would allow Greece to force private bond holders into accepting new IOUs worth at least 53.5% less than the original paper.
Greece was under increasing pressure after the international ratings agency Fitch downgraded its assessment of Greece's long-term debt and said it considered a Greek default "very likely in the near term."
The uncertain economic foundation for Greek bailout action was underscored again today when the EU said a fifth year of recession would result in a 4.4% contraction of Greek gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012.
