Greece has extended its offer to buy back debt until Tuesday, seeking more bids from bondholders after falling just short of a target to retire bonds worth 30 billion euros ($36 billion) at a cost of just 10 billion euros.
The buyback is designed to provide for about half of a 40-billion euro debt relief package for Athens agreed last month by the European Union and International Monetary Fund.
Its success is crucial for ensuring Greece's debt is put back on a sustainable footing, and to unlock badly needed aid for the country.
The offer had been due to end on Friday. The debt agency extended the offer to 7 am EDT on Tuesday.
"The aim is to reach the 30 billion euro target on the face value of debt to be bought back," said a government official, who declined to be named.
Greece was given 10 billion euros to conduct the buyback. The source said the aim was to use all of it.
A senior Greek banker who spoke on condition of anonymity said Athens aimed to use the delay to get another 3 to 4 billion euros worth of bonds offered for exchange.
"This will be easily covered by Greek banks, if foreign bondholders do not offer more," the banker told Reuters.
Greek banks and insurers had tendered about 10 billion euros of bonds out of their total holdings of about 17 billion euros, the banker said. Nearly 63 billion euros of Greek debt held by private investors was eligible for the buyback.