Aryanews- Iceland has made a last-ditch compensation offer to Britain and the Netherlands in talks over $5 billion lost in "Icesave" accounts, ahead of a Saturday referendum which is expected to nullify the current deal.
Foreign Minister Ossur Skarphedinsson told the Financial Times Deutschland that Iceland was awaiting British and Dutch replies to the offer, which it hopes to present at home as a better alternative and so avoid the referendum.
"We're continuing to negotiate and because of the deadline we're under high pressure like never before. Those are good conditions for achieving an agreement," Skarphedinsson told Wednesday's edition of the paper.
A source familiar with the matter said the Dutch delegation remained in London for talks with their Icelandic counterparts but said "nothing definite" had happened in the negotiations, though the parties remained in contact.
The source declined comment on whether the Netherlands and Britain were due to respond to any Icelandic proposal. Britain's Treasury said it was not giving a running commentary on the long-running Icesave negotiations.
Skarphedinsson said that if Saturday's referendum went ahead a "No" vote was certain and that the negotiations would be further drawn out.
Less than a fifth of Icelanders back the Icesave bill. Most see the terms as unfair and some want to vote down the deal to vent their anger and frustration at Iceland being bullied into a deal by two bigger countries.
Rejection of the Icesave bill would likely freeze the foreign aid needed to resuscitate Iceland's economy and cloud its prospects of joining the European Union.
Skarphedinsson said Britain and the Netherlands could try to hinder Iceland's ambitions to join the bloc, but he had no reason to believe they actually would.
Support for accession has been falling in past months and membership now opposed by more than half of Icelanders, nearly twice the level seen just after the 2008 financial crisis in which three of Iceland's leading banks collapsed.
"Attitudes towards EU membership are changing drastically," said Gudbjorg Andrea Jonsdottir, research director at pollster Capacent. "There is a lot of anger over the Icesave saga and, rightly or wrongly, some blame is directed at the EU, which only adds to long-held Icelandic suspicions about Brussels."
Traditionally go-it-alone Icelanders are concerned about losing control over their treasured fishing industry to the EU.