Greece sets date for €200bn debt swap Greece plans to launch a debt swap next month for private bondholders as part of a second €130bn bail-out expected to be approved on Monday by eurozone finance ministers, a government official said on Saturday. The official said the swap, which would cover €200bn of Greek sovereign debt, would take place between March 8 and March 11, only days before Athens is due to repay a €14.4bn bond maturing on March 20. As a first step towards completing the deal, the Greek parliament is set to pass legislation next week on so-called collective action clauses, with the aim of forcing a minority of "holdout" investors to take losses of around 70 per cent on their holdings. The debt swap would offer bondholders a cash sweetener of 10-15 per cent of their holdings, plus new 30-year bonds with a coupon of around 3.75 per cent, which could increase if Greece achieves higher than forecast growth rates An Athens banker with knowledge of the swap negotiations said the size of the cash payment and the final interest rate would be set by eurozone officials ahead of Monday's meeting of finance ministers. Greece's cabinet on Saturday approved a package of reforms agreed with international lenders that would be pushed through parliament by the end of February, clearing the way for the debt swap to go ahead. Announcements of deep wage and pension cuts included in the €3.3bn package, which aims at achieving 2012 budget targets despite a deeper than forecast recession, have triggered strong popular reaction. Greece's two largest trade unions, Adedy and Gsee, urged workers to turn out on Sunday for another protest in Syntagma square outside parliament - the scene of violent clashes between police and rioters last weekend, leading to arson attacks against dozens of buildings in the city centre. Greece was forced to accept an extra €300m of pension cuts after European Union and International Monetary Fund officials rejected an alternative proposal by the finance ministry to make additional reductions in defence and local government spending.