Eurozone ministers approve Greek bailout deal

Brussels, Aug 15  Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said late Friday that the finance ministers' meeting on Greece turned out "positive" and Greece is expected to get a new loan worth up to $95 bn.

The outcome of the meeting made the weeks-long negotiation in Athens "pay off", Dijsselbloem said after the Eurogoup meeting on Greece, Xinhua news agency reported.

The ministers gathered here to discuss Greece's third bailout plan under the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).

According to a statement released by the European Commission (EC) immediately after the meeting, the new billion-dollar loans will be made available over the next three years to Greece by the ESM.

"The past six months have been difficult ... today, I am glad to say that all sides have respected their commitments," the statement cited EC President Jean-Claude Juncker as saying.

"The message of today's Eurogroup is loud and clear: on this basis, Greece is and will irreversibly remain a member of the Euro area," Juncker said.

Valdis Dombrovskis, the Commission's Vice-President for the Euro and Social Dialogue, who introduced the result of the Commission's negotiations with Greece to the Eurogroup on Friday, said "today's agreement will lift the uncertainty that has hung over the country and the euro area for too long".

"We are ready to support Greece with all our instruments -- from technical assistance to financial support," he was quoted as saying in the statement.

Earlier in the morning, the Greek parliament overwhelmingly voted in favour of adopting series of new austerity measures to secure the long-awaited bailout plan.

Debt-torn Greece is facing an urgent repayment of a 3.2-billion-euro loan to the European Central Bank due on August 20.