A Greek debt default is "highly likely in the near term," Fitch said in a statement Wednesday.

Therefore, it was forced to cut the southern European country's credit rating by two notches, from "CCC" to "C".

The move followed Tuesday's eurozone agreement for a second bailout package for Greece, which includes forced losses of 53.5 percent on the Greek sovereign debt holdings of private investors.

The bond swap deal - costing private creditors 107 billion euros ($142 billion) - prompted the agency to move Greece's rating out of the "restricted default category" into one "consistent with the agency's assessment of the country's post-default structure and credit profile," Fitch said.

This would mean, Fitch added, that all Greek debts, even those held by private investors who refuse the debt swap offer, would be lowered to "D" for default status.

Athens unfazed

The Greek government appears undaunted by the new downgrade, describing a future default rating as a simple "technicality."

Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said rating agencies might declare selective default for Greece while the debt-swap operation was carried out, but "a selective default is only critical if the ECB [European Central Bank] and the eurozone consider it so."

Meanwhile, Athens has drafted legislation for a so-called Collective Action Clause (CAC), aimed at forcing reluctant private investors to accept losses on their Greek bond holdings.

A source in the Greek Finance Ministry told AFP news agency that parliament was to vote on the draft this week, and that the Clause would be imposed if the debt-swap plan was endorsed by at least 66 percent of private creditors.

uh/nk (dpa, AP, AFP)