UPDATE 2-France says no Argentine request to talk Paris Club

PARIS, Sept 22 - France's economy minister has not received a request from Argentina to discuss the country's Paris Club debt during the G20 summit, a French source said on Tuesday, although an Argentine official said it was being processed.

Argentine media said Economy Minister Amado Boudou was scheduled to meet his French counterpart, Christine Lagarde, in Pittsburgh as part of negotiations to reach agreement to pay back $6.7 billion in defaulted debt owed to the group of sovereign creditors.

"We have not yet received any request," the French economy ministry source told Reuters.

But an official at the Argentine economy ministry who asked not to be named said Boudou requested a meeting through the French embassy in Argentina and it was being channeled to Paris.

France is a member of the Paris Club creditors group. The economy ministry also houses the Paris Club headquarters.

On Monday, Boudou said he would travel to Paris in October for meetings to discuss the debt. A Paris Club official declined to comment.

Argentina is seeking to return to international credit markets but its ability to do so is being hampered in part by its failure to resolve the defaulted Paris Club debt.

The country defaulted on some $100 billion in debt in 2002 at the height of an economic crisis.

Boudou said last week the country was negotiating to pay back the debt as part of a broader effort to seek agreement with bondholders who rejected an earlier attempt at debt restructuring.

La Nacion newspaper said on Sunday that Argentina would make an offer to the Paris Club to clear the debt over a five-year period.

The repayment proposal will also ask Paris Club members to finance private business ventures in Argentina, the paper said.

An improvement in relations between Argentina and the International Monetary Fund is also seen as key to a deal.

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

Boudou has said that the Paris Club issue could be solved this year.