Irish FinMin says Greece should seek Irish-style solution to debt woe

Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan said Greece should seek to reduce interest rates on its debts and push for later repayment dates rather than the ?nuclear? options of leaving the euro area and writing off loans.

?There?s a middle road and it?s along the lines of what we did in Ireland,? Noonan said in an interview with Bloomberg Television?s Guy Johnson and Francine Lacqua in London Wednesday. ?You negotiate to make your debt more sustainable, even without getting debt write-offs.?

Noonan and other euro-region finance ministers agreed on Tuesday to extend Greece?s bailout program for another four months after signing off on a reform plan proposed by the government in Athens. The SYRIZA party was elected to power last month on a platform that included writing off some debts and ending austerity.

Ireland, which sought a 67.5 billion-euro ($77 billion) international rescue in 2010 amid the worst property crash in western Europe, has emerged from an era of austerity, Noonan wrote in a column for the Irish Independent newspaper published Wednesday. The country has cut interest repayments by more than 10 billion euros through negotiations and reduced the amount it will have to borrow over the next decade by 20 billion euros by extending the maturities on some loans, he wrote.

?There?s a number of moving parts,? Noonan said in the interview. ?It?s a question of agreeing on the parts that move to make the debt more sustainable and it?s in that space the negotiations can take place.?

Based on the provisional agreement between Greece and its official creditors on Feb. 20, the approval of the list was a condition for extending the availability of bailout funds for another four months. The current program, which has been keeping Europe...