The Hellenic Republic's new €5bn ($4.5bn) 10-year bond takes it a step closer to its target of having the maximum number of issues trading on EuroMTS, the trading platform for liquid benchmarks, by the end of 2002.

Including the new issue, Greece has eight deals worth a total of €53.5bn trading on EuroMTS. Each country is allowed a total of 11 issues and Greece plans to launch three more deals this year with maturities of three, five and 20 years. One outstanding deal will be retired in the process.