Greece's Prime Minister Papandreou
Greece's Prime Minister Papandreou Reuters

Greece is not in talks to stretch out repayment of its entire outstanding debt, a finance ministry official, who requested anonymity, said on Tuesday.

The official was responding to comments by Deputy Prime Minister Theodore Pangalos, who said late on Monday he believed Greece could be helped out of its debt crisis by extending repayment of all outstanding debt but without any haircuts.

The government has a very specific agenda ... there is preliminary agreement to extend repayment of Greece's EU/IMF bailout loans and that's it, the official told Reuters.

There is nothing else being discussed, nothing more on extending repayment of all outstanding debt, the official said.

Worries over Greece's ability to service a debt mountain projected to hit 157.3 percent of GDP in 2013, after its EU/IMF emergency funding ends, have kept yield spreads of Greek government bonds over German bunds close to peak crisis levels.

While the government has repeatedly dismissed talk of debt restructuring, such worries persist.

Pangalos said during a Greek TV interview that he did not believe in any debt restructuring involving haircuts but that he favoured extending the repayment period on Greek debt, referring not just to the 110 billion euros of EU/IMF bailout loans agreed last year.

This (extension of debt repayment) does not put in doubt paying off in its entirety what is owed, the deputy prime minister said.

(Reporting by George Georgiopoulos; Editing by Susan Fenton)