1st LD Writethru: 7.16-bln-euro bridge loan to reach Greece by Monday

A 7.16-billion-euro (7.8 billion U.S. dollars) bridge loan to Greece will reach "on time" by Monday when the debt-torn country have to repay a 3.5-billion-euro loan to the European Central Bank (ECB), a top EU official said Friday.

"We had an agreement on bridge financing for Greece based on the EFSM (European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism) law," said European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis.

"This agreement backed by 28 European member states provides Greece an immediate loan. It means that 7.16 billion euros will reach Greece on time by Monday," Dombrovskis told a press conference.

The loan will allow Greece to clear its arrears with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Bank of Greece and to repay the ECB, according to a statement issued by the European Council on Friday.

Greece failed to make a 1.5-billion-euro repayment due to the IMF on June 30 and missed a new repayment worth of about 456 million euros to the Fund on July 13. To date, Greece's arrears to the IMF total about 2 billion euros.

The bridge loan will "have a maximum maturity of three months," until Greece would start receiving financing under a new program from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the statement said.

The 19 leaders of the Eurogroup on Monday struck a fresh bailout deal on the Greek debt from the ESM which could worth 86 billion euros, but the program will only start to inject money after Greece fully completes its commitments on austerity reform. (1 euro = 1.09 U.S. dollars) Endit