Central Bank of Cyprus hopes for Troika deal by end-Sept

"We hope that an accord can be signed (with the Troika) by the end of September, because we want this uncertainty which is hovering at the moment to disappear, for this issue to close," Panicos Demetriades, who is also a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank, told the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation in a televised interview.

Cyprus, a euro zone minnow with a population of around a million, was forced to seek a bailout from international lenders in June to help its second largest bank badly damaged by its exposure to Greece.

Cyprus Popular Bank saw its regulatory capital depleted when European Union leaders agreed to write-down Greek debt, effectively saddling it, and the island's largest lender, Bank of Cyprus, with mammoth losses. The island was forced to seek external assistance to prop up the banks, since it has been shut out of conventional capital markets where it can independently raise money for more than a year.

The island has started talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Commission and the European Central Bank on its bailout, but Cyprus's financial requirements, which will also cover its broader public sector, are still unclear.

Demetriades said an in-depth assessment of domestic banks' exposures to Greece, and other liabilities, would be carried out.

"By the end of October we should know precisely the capital needs of the banks," he said, saying that a loan accord could be clinched in the meantime based on some assessments of total needs.