HELSINKI (AFP) - Finland's government on Tuesday revised down the amount of debt it expected to take on this year and Prime Minister Vanhanen said the worst of the recession seemed to be over.

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"It is visible in our government income that certain healthy and good signals are in the air despite the focus over the past weeks on the difficulties in the financial markets," Vanhanen told reporters after a cabinet meeting on the government's third supplementary budget for the year.

"The worst of the economic recession may have passed," he said.

Finland would need on take on around 12 billion euros (15 billion dollars) of net debt this year, down 1.9 billion euros versus an earlier estimate, Finance Minster Jyrki Katainen said.

"Net debt at the end of the year is estimated at 76 billion euros, which is 43 percent of (Gross Domestic Product)," Katainen said.

The figure is well below the European Union's ceiling of 60 percent which many other countries have breached as they have boosted spending to try and keep their economies going during the global slump.

When Finland suffered from its previous economic recession in the 1990s, the Nordic country's debt peaked at 67 percent of GDP in 1996.

In 2008, Finnish debt hit its lowest level since then, at 29 percent of GDP.

The new 2010 debt estimate includes 1.6 billion euros for a loan to help debt-laden Greece avoid bankruptcy, with a vote due in parliament on Wednesday.

The main opposition party, the Social Democratic Party, said Tuesday it would vote against the government proposal for assistance to Greece, a move both Katainen and Vanhanen called populist and irresponsible.

The government motion is likely to get through with the support of the ruling coalition parties.