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Cyprus fin min: we have money to pay our bills

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus' finance ministry says the government has secured enough money to cover its immediate financial needs and that there's "no issue" of not paying workers' salaries this month.

Tuesday's effort to reassure comes a day after the ministry's top civil servant indicated that state coffers were running dry. Finance Ministry Permanent Secretary Christos Patsalides warned that the government was days away from declaring that it couldn't pay holiday salaries unless the country's three biggest state-owned companies agreed to dip into their pension funds and lend it some €250 million ($329 million).

All three have indicated that they would do so. Cyprus is now finalizing a bailout deal with its euro partners and the International Monetary Fund to shore up the finances of its banks, which have been heavily-exposed to Greece.

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