Awwal 13, 1432 H/Feb 16, 2011, SPA -- - Iceland's parliament Wednesday approved a revised plan to repay compensation to Britain and the Netherlands over the collapse of an Icelandic bank three years ago. The deal was approved by a 44 to 16 vote in the 63-seat legislature. Three members abstained, dpa reported. The governments of Britain and the Netherlands want Iceland to repay some 5 billion dollars after they initially stepped in to compensate their own citizens who lost money when the Icesave bank, an arm of the Landsbanki bank, collapsed in the autumn of 2008. Legislators also rejected a proposal for a referendum on the new deal. A previous agreement was roundly rejected in a referendum in March. Voters then appeared to fear that the sums would choke Iceland's economic recovery, and that the country was already saddled with big debts. President Olafur Grimsson must approve the revised deal. He vetoed the former deal, citing concerns from voters, resulting in the referendum. An online petition against the deal has collected some 32,000 signatures, about 10 per cent of the North Atlantic nation's population. The deal contained terms on a ceiling for annual payments and fixed interest rate until mid-2016 when repayments were set to begin. The repayments were to be concluded by 2046. "This was the best deal we could get at this time," US attorney Lee Bucheit, chairman of the Icelandic negotiating team, said in December after the new deal was hammered out. Resolving the Icesave issue will allow Iceland to focus fully on its negotiations for membership in the European Union.
