IJsland om de tafel met Nederland en Engeland over Icesave affaire (en)
Iceland is to hold talks with the Netherlands and the UK over the ongoing Icesave dispute between the three countries.
The North Atlantic nation's finance minister, Steingrimur Sigfusson, made the announcement while speaking to Icelandic public radio.
The discussions will remain at the informal level. Official negotiations between the parties, desired by Reykjavik, have yet to be agreed.
The talks on Monday instead will allow for an exploratory exchange of information on a new proposed agreement on the repayment of the €3.8 billion London and the Hague used to compensate British and Dutch savers who lost money in October 2008 when their accounts with the online savings account Icesave were frozen, following the collapse of the parent company Landsbanki.
The Icelandic government is to suggest a different payment plan than had been previously agreed, which would see Landsbanki assets sold to allow for a more rapid payment of the debt.
Icelandic citizens have balked at the onerous terms of the current agreement, which would see every household have to contribute around €45,000 of the sum, worth around 40 percent of Iceland's GDP.
Protests against the payback prompted the president of the country to refuse to sign the legislation enacting the deal and called a referendum on the matter, due to take place on 6 March.
The government hopes that the fresh proposal will satisfy both the Netherlands and the UK and opponents in the national parliament, allowing it to avoid a referendum it is likely to lose.
The Dutch and British sides are reportedly open to the idea, but want assurance that the government has all-party support. A spokesman for the Icelandic government told EUobserver that the UK and the Netherlands do not want to agree to a new deal that could later be unravelled by parliamentary opposition.
In the last few weeks, informal contacts between the sides have been maintained following a previous round of talks in January that concluded without result.
Mr Sigfusson did not say where the talks would take place.