Austria could vote on Greek aid on Sept 30: parties

(VIENNA) - Austria's ruling parties said Friday they will request an extraordinary parliamentary session on September 30 to debate additional aid to debt-stricken eurozone casualty Greece.

Austria sparked market fears earlier this week that it might not approve the aid as planned after opposition parties prevented a parliamentary finance committee from debating the issue.

Now the committee will debate the rescue package on September 27, so that it can go before an extraordinary parliamentary session on September 30, according to Karlheinz Kopf, head of the ruling People's Party's parliamentary faction.

The conservative party's coalition partners, the Social Democrats, confirmed the dates.

Under a new plan agreed with eurozone leaders in July, Austria is to increase its contribution of state guarantees to the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) to 21.6 billion euros ($29.6 billion).

The plan will increase the EFSF's effective lending capacity to 440 billion euros, as well as give it new tools to fight the eurozone debt crisis. Austria's previous pledge was 12.24 billion euros.

It also includes a second bailout for Greece, which totals nearly 160 billion euros including private holders of Greek government debt accepting losses by rolling over debt.

To pass the second package, a simple majority in parliament will be enough, which should be assured by the votes of the governing parties.

But the Greens also gave their support Thursday for expanding Vienna's contribution, even after they helped delay the proceedings a day earlier.

The procedure to get the motion on the agenda on Wednesday had been "bungled and chaotic," they said to explain their earlier move.

The two far-right opposition parties, the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) and the Alliance for Austria's Future (BZOe), on the other hand are expected to oppose additional aid.