Fernandez says willing to talk with all creditors

BUENOS AIRES: Argentine President Cristina Fernandez said on Friday her government would negotiate with all the country's creditors, amid expectations that the country is poised to start talks with bond investors who refused to participate in two restructurings.

"We want to pay 100 percent of creditors," she said in a speech celebrating Argentine Flag Day, sparking a sharp tightening of the country's risk spreads.

Argentina has for years refused to even consider talks with "holdout" creditors whom Fernandez has disparaged as "vultures" out to take advantage of fallout from the country's 2002 sovereign default, which thrust millions of middle-class Argentines into poverty.

The country is in a 12-year-old fight in the US courts with holdouts who declined to participate a 2005 and 2010 revamp of debt securities in which more than 90 percent of holders accepted about a third of the original value of their bonds.