主题：冰岛公决决定赖帐。。。。。。 -- rul

REYKJAVIK, Iceland – Icelanders blew whistles and set off fireworks in the capital as referendum results Sunday showed they had resoundingly rejected a $5.3 billion plan to repay Britain and the Netherlands for debts spawned by the collapse of an Icelandic bank.

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More than 93 percent of voters said "no" in Saturday's ballot, while only 1.8 percent voted "yes," according to official results. The rest were blank or spoiled ballots. The results were based on a count of all but 2,500 of the 143,784 votes cast. Bad weather delayed ballot boxes from remote northern areas from reaching the capital, Reykjavik.

The overwhelming margin reflected Icelanders' simmering anger at bankers and politicians as the country struggles to recover from a financial meltdown. President Olafur R. Grimsson — who sparked the referendum by refusing to sign the repayment deal agreed by Iceland's parliament — said Icelanders resented having to pay for the actions of a few "greedy bankers."

He said, however, the British and Dutch would get their money back eventually.

"The referendum was not about refusing to pay back the money," Grimsson told the BBC. "Iceland is willing to reimburse those two governments, but it has to be on fair terms."

Iceland, a volcanic island with a population of just 320,000, went from economic wunderkind to fiscal basket case almost overnight when the credit crunch took hold.

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