Greece yesterday confirmed receipt of a loan tranche of €14.5 billion from the European Union under a giant rescue package to enable it to meet an imminent debt deadline.

"The sum of €14.5 billion has been released by the European Commission, via the European Central Bank, to a Greek State account at the Bank of Greece," the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

"These funds cover Greece's immediate and short-term loan requirements and obligations," the ministry said, adding that 10 eurozone members had contributed with bilateral loans.

The list was headed by German state bank KfW which provided some €4.4 billion while France gave more than €3.3 billion, with other contributions from Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Luxembourg, Cyprus and Malta.

The full line-up of eurozone countries includes Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Slovenia and Slovakia.

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