Greek creditors are headed toward an agreement to roll over 70 percent of their holdings of that nation's bonds into longer maturity debt in an effort to prevent default and answer politicians' calls that they contribute to the country's second rescue in two years.

"We've been working on this," and hope other countries will join the proposal, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said today at a press conference in Paris. Germany's biggest banks and insurers are weighing the French proposal, a person familiar with the matter said today. 

German and French lenders are the biggest European holders of Greek debt and their participation in the plan is key to EU leaders' goals of getting European banks to roll over at least 30 billion euros ($43 billion) of bonds. The rollover is part of a broader aid package being prepared by the EU to help prevent the euro-region's first default a year after Greece was given a 110 billion-euro bailout that failed to stop the region's debt crisis.