BRUSSELS (MNI) - Greece wants to come back to the international financial markets much sooner than the joint Eurozone and International Monetary Fund rescue plan foresees, Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou told reporters on Tuesday.

BRUSSELS (MNI) - The Greek finance ministry Tuesday confirmed it has received the first part of a eurozone aid package worth E110 billion over three years and said that would cover its immediate and short-term financing needs.

"Today the Greek Government received the amount of 14.5 billion euro from the European Commission through the European Central Bank," the finance ministry said in a statement.

LONDON, May 18 (MNI) - Strong demand for euro-sterling, by major French names, countered the sterling positive reaction to the release of stronger-than-forecast UK inflation data.

Cable extended recovery highs to $1.4522 following the release but was quickly squeezed back to $1.4415/10 on the cross demand.

FRANKFURT (MNI) - The European Central Bank drained E16.5 bln from the banking system in a one-week liquidity absorbing operation, the bank announced Tuesday.

The amount drained was in line with the desired amount of E16.5 bln, which the ECB on Monday said it intended to drain.

The weighted average allotment rate for the operation was 0.28% and there were 223 bidders, the bank said.

LONDON, May 18 (MNI) - The euro recovery continued through European morning trade Tuesday with euro-dollar edging up to $1.2431 although it was reported to have met decent real-money supply that countered corporate and macro demand. Underlying sentiment remains euro negative, due to eurozone debt issues, but the recovery in European equity markets allows the single European currency some respite from recent downside pressure.

BERLIN (MNI) - The German lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, is to vote on Germany's share in the EU rescue bill for the euro this week, Volker Kauder, the parliamentary leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right CDU/CSU bloc, said Tuesday after a meeting of the ruling CDU/CSU-FDP coalition.

FRANKFURT (MNI) - The European Central Bank on Tuesday called for bids in a one-week liquidity absorbing operation designed to sterilize the money that the bank had injected, as of last week, into the financial system through its purchases of bonds on the secondary market.

The operation is in the form of a variable-rate tender with a maximum bid rate of 1.00%, the bank said. It intends to mop up E16.5 billion in liquidity, equaling the size of the bank's Securities Market Program, it said Monday. Bids are due by 12:05 CET.

BEIJING (MNI) - A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman repeated on Tuesday the government's long-held stance that it will continue to improve its exchange rate regime based on economic developments.

"For the yuan exchange rate question, I am not a central bank official. But I can say China will continue to improve the yuan formation mechanism according to world economy conditions and China's own economic developments," said spokesman Ma Zhaoxu at a regular briefing on Tuesday.