Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Argentine Economy Minister Amado Boudou said the country plans to make a proposal on the restructuring of $20 billion of defaulted bonds within 30 days and may sell new international debt in the first quarter.

“In 30 days we could get all the administrative steps to put a formal offer in the market,” Boudou said in an interview with Bloomberg Television today in St. Andrews, Scotland, after a meeting with Group of 20 finance heads.

Boudou said Argentina will seek approval from as many of the holders of the defaulted debt as possible and may meet investors in Italy, Germany, Japan, New York and London. He said Oct. 22 that the offer to holders who rejected a 2005 restructuring will be “a little bit” worse than the original swap. That gave investors about 30 cents on the dollar.

Argentina may sell bonds in international markets to finance investments in utilities and infrastructure, Boudou said. The country won’t use the bonds to pay debt owed to the Paris Club group of government creditors, he said.

The South American country may settle its debt with the club, which includes the U.S., Germany, Italy and Japan, as soon as this year, Boudou said.

Argentina still owes the Paris Club about $6.7 billion, which President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner last year pledged to repay using central-bank reserves.

“Maybe in the first quarter of next year we will do a new issue of bonds in the voluntary market,” Boudou said. “We want to get the funds to improve and enlarge our program of investments in the real economy, mostly in utilities, like electricity generation and water systems.”

Boudou also said today the Argentine peso is “under control” and that he doesn’t expect any “jumps” in the exchange rate. The peso has fallen 9.5 percent against the U.S. dollar this year.

-- With assistance from Svenja O’Donnell in St. Andrews, Scotland. Editor: Rodney Jefferson

To contact the reporters on this story: Laura Price in St. Andrews at lprice3@bloomberg.netJuan Pablo Spinetto in St. Andrews at jspinetto@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 7, 2009 13:57 EST