Greece to issue bonds in summer

The sale would follow Greece's 3 billion euro sale of five-year bonds in April that marked the clearest sign yet that the country was emerging from a painful debt crisis and could exit its bailout soon.

"Conditions in the markets are good for a new bond issue in the summer," the official said on condition of anonymity, cautioning that the government had yet to finalize details. "We are talking about a small-sized issue of around 2 to 3 billion euros with the primary aim of filling the yield curve", he added.

Athens is trying to correct a gap on medium-term issues in its yield curve. It issued 3-month and 6-month Treasury bills through the debt crisis and the five-year bond in April but its debt maturities then jump to between 10 and 30 years.

"There is strong interest for both a seven-year and a three-year bond," the official said. "A seven-year bond is more likely (in the summer). Later on, we could issue a three-year bond. For maturities of 1.5 to 2 years it could be done with T-bills."

Despite the success of its last bond sale, Greece does not expect a quick switch to covering all its funding needs through bond issues, though it does want to start whittling down the so-called funding gap - financial needs uncovered by bailout aid or government revenues - projected to open up in 2015.

The IMF estimates Greece faces a funding gap of 12.6 billion starting in May 2015, though Athens believes any gap can be covered through measures like new bond issues and leftover bank bailout funds.