Boudou Minister will tour the U.S., Europe and Japan. Between 12 and 15 this month, the SEC would approve the final offer. The reopening of the offer to the holdouts include a bond issue to 7 years




Argentina expects to launch its announced an exchange of defaulted bonds for $ s20.000 million last week of January, an offer that included a bonus to seven years to compensate for interest accrued since 2005, said Friday the economy minister, Amado Boudou.

The country hopes that the exchange offer to holders that were left out of the restructuring in 2005 has a 60% acceptance, Boudou told Reuters, saying the figure could be higher.

"We hope to have 60% acceptance, but will likely be higher," the official said.

The exchange is part of Argentina's efforts to resolve its massive debt default of eight years and return to voluntary debt markets to obtain financing within a framework of fiscal constraints and deadlines for $ s13.000 million in 2010.

Retail bondholders, as retirees from Italy and Japan, have about 25% of defaulted Argentine bonds and have a slightly lower discount and more time to consider the offer, the minister added.

The minister spoke to Reuters while attending the start in downtown Buenos Aires of the Dakar rally, a car race that runs through Argentina and Chile in South America vying for the second year instead of Africa.

The Government plans to make a trade promotion in the coming weeks in several cities, including New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, Paris and Zurich, said Boudou.

Argentina fell into default in 2001/2002 to breaching debt per 100,000 million. In 2005 undertook a restructuring which meant a tough off for investors.

About a quarter of the bondholders rejected the offer four years ago and many of them try to recover the total investment in these bonds.

The Government stated that no offer to the bondholders in default better terms than in 2005.

Plans to address the situation of holders of defaulted Argentine bonds, known as holdouts, have helped Argentine bonds to become one of the world's best performers in 2009. Some Argentine bonds gained more than 60% last year.

Boudou said institutional investors who own about 10,000 million dollars in bonds in default, or half of the defaulted debt, pledged to participate in the exchange, which is being managed by Barclays, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank.

Signs of Argentina advanced to an agreement with holders of defaulted bonds have also helped lower borrowing costs in the country.

Boudou said that Argentina wants to return to world credit markets by paying an interest rate of one digit.