Brussels, 21/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 21 November 2011, after a meeting with the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso, the Greek prime minister, Lucas Papademos, said that he had a Herculean task ahead of him but the only way forward for the Greeks was to ensure urgent application of the agreement reached at the eurozone summit of 26-7 October 2011 on the second Greek bailout programme and the country's public spending cuts. Papademos pointed out that negotiations had started last week with the private sector over a bond swap in January which would lead to a 50% writedown of the face value of Greek bonds, thereby reducing the country's debt from 150% of GDP to 120% by 2020. Lucas Papademos said that the formation of a government of national unity was a very important step in the forging of national consensus about the work that is needed: “I underlined the importance that leaders of parties supporting government, they already expressed support through their vote in parliament, will also express their long term commitment on economic policies necessary to restart growth and strengthen fiscal consolidation. This letter has been requested by the Eurogroup IMF and EU and is necessary in order to eliminate the uncertainties and ambiguities on actions to be taken in future. Up to leaders to decide how this confirmation of commitment”. The head of Greek conservative party New Democracy, Antonis Samaras, has slammed the request as yet another humiliation, but without the written commitment, the €8 billion instalment of aid needed by Greece to pay its bills next month will not be forthcoming. Barroso said the country needed to be united and Greek's lenders had to have absolute confidence in Greek politicians' desire to meet the long-term economic targets, adding that this would be a marathon rather than a sprint. (MB/transl.fl)