国际英语新闻：Talks on IMF rescue to end rather soon, says Greek finance minister

Papaconstaninou said Greece has started a three-year restructuring program to regain the confidence of European partners, the international community and the market.

Every item on the reform agenda has been started. The Greek parliament has passed a bill to overhaul the tax system to increase government revenue. Tough measures have been taken to reduce the wage bill of the public sector by 10 percent in 2010, the minister said.

Some of the reforms have started to pay off, he said. The country's deficit has declined 14 percent in the first quarter.

"It is important to state at this point that these negotiations did not suffer scratch," he said.

Strauss-Kahn said his talks with Papaconstaninou on Sunday had been very constructive and that he is confident negotiations with Greece will be concluded in time to meet Greece's need.