A debt relief deal for Greece could come this weekend, a senior European Union official said Friday.

The EU's economic commissioner, Olli Rehn, told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that Greek government negotiators could reach an agreement with representatives of the country’s private creditors soon.

"We're very close," Rehn said, expressing hope a settlement could be achieved in time for the summit of all 27 EU leaders that takes place on Monday.

The two sides are "about to close a deal,” he said, “preferably in January rather than February."

At the same time, Bloomberg reported that Greece was preparing plans on an orderly exit out of the eurozone currency union.

Bloomberg, citing two anonymous sources close to Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, said the plan would be to return to a legacy currency such as the drachma.

Talks resume Saturday

Officials close to the negotiations with private creditors said there was progress on legal and technical issues Friday and that talks would resume Saturday.

The aim is to have private bondholders forgive half their Greek debt, which the country is unable to pay in full anyway.

In return, the creditors would get cash payments and swap their old bonds with new ones that have later payback dates.

Greece is widely expected to default on March 20 when a €14.5 billion ($19-billion Cdn) bond repayment comes due, unless it can reach a deal.

A major sticking point is the interest rates the new bonds will carry.

With files from The Associated Press