Greece’s new finance minister yesterday pledged to walk the path of debt reduction as his country’s euro partners mulled whether to release loans to keep Athens afloat this summer, and offer it a second major bailout.

Barely 48 hours after being handed the tough Greek portfolio, Evangelos Venizelos headed into two days of crunch talks with his 16 euro partners saying “we can achieve our target.”

Eurozone finance ministers are to agree whether to pay out loans under last year’s whopping €110-billion bailout of Greece, while also discussing a new rescue tipped almost as big, that governments hope to share out between taxpayers and the private sector.

“It is a great opportunity for me to repeat the strong commitment of the Greek government and the strong will of the Greek people for the implementation of the programme,” Mr Venizelos said, referring to a four-year austerity package crucial to securing fresh aid.“We can achieve our target, thanks to the efforts of our people, and thanks to the cooperation and the assistance of our partners,” he said. The former defence minister took on the country’s crippling debt problems only on Friday when Prime Minister George Papandreou revamped his government in the face of threats of government meltdown due to protests over the austerity plan.

As ministers from the 17 nations using the euro began talks at 7 p.m., Luxembourg Premier Jean-Claude Juncker, who heads the eurogroup, said he expected no decision on Greece before Monday (today).