ECB's Nowotny says Greek debt deal best option

VIENNA: A debt compromise agreed to unlock aid for Greece was a good one, removing the danger that lenders would have to take a haircut, European Central Bank policymaker Ewald Nowotny said.

"I believe in such a difficult situation as we see in Greece there are no ideal solutions but it is probably a solution that is better than all alternatives," Nowotny told Austrian ORF radio in an interview broadcast on Wednesday.

"The debt haircut is off the table."

After 12 hours of talks at their third meeting in as many weeks, euro zone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund agreed this week to reduce Greek debt by 40 billion euros ($52 billion), opening the way for 43.7 billion euros of loans to be disbursed by early 2013.