Iceland hopes Icesave talks can start next week

A page from Icesave online bank is seen on a computer screen in London 07/10/2008

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Iceland's foreign minister said on Thursday he was hopeful Reykjavik could restart talks with Britain and the Netherlands next week on striking a new Iceland repayment deal.

Iceland Foreign Minister Ossur Skarphedinsson said representatives from Britain and the Netherlands had confirmed they were ready for a dialogue to resume.

He also told a news conference here, following a meeting of Nordic foreign ministers, he felt that there was an "embryo" of a new Icesave deal last week. The three sides had been in talks for 3 weeks ahead of a referendum on an old Icesave deal in Iceland last weekend.

As expected, Icelandic voters overwhelmingly rejected the old deal on paying back the more than $5 billion in Anglo-Dutch debts. Those debts arose after the two European Union members compensated savers in their countries who lost money in Icelandic online deposit accounts.

(Reporting by John Acher and Anna Ringstrom)