Argentina to offer 5-year Paris Club payment-report

BUENOS AIRES, Sept 20 - Argentina will make an offer to the Paris Club group of creditor nations to clear at least $6.7 billion in defaulted debt over a five-year period, the La Nacion newspaper reported on Sunday.

Economy Minister Amado Boudou said last week the country was negotiating an agreement to pay back the debt as he seeks to return Latin America's No. 3 economy to global credit markets.

Argentina's repayment proposal will also ask Paris Club members to finance private business ventures in the South American country, La Nacion said, citing unnamed government sources.

Argentina, which faces another tight financing year in 2010, remains largely excluded from international credit markets seven years after it defaulted on some $100 billion in debt at the height of a sharp economic crisis.

One of its obstacles is the unresolved Paris Club debt.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez said last year the country would pay the group using central bank reserves but the onset of the global financial crisis meant the cash repayment plan was scrapped.

Speculation has grown in recent weeks that Argentina plans to allow the International Monetary Fund to review its economy again after it virtually broke ties with the lender in 2006.

That has been seen as a key step if the South American country is to reach a repayment deal with the Paris Club.