VENEZUELA {$150 BILLION DEBT} VERNIER

Venezuela slipped inexorably towards a formal debt default Friday, with analysts saying it was all but inevitable for the sinking OPEC state which owes about $150 billion.

''With Venezuela's state-owned oil company having reportedly failed to make a principal payment on a bond that has now matured, credit default swaps are likely to be triggered on Friday,'' market analysts Capital Economics said.

A group of creditors assembled under the aegis of a global financial body, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association [ISDA], will meet in New York to review whether an-

Overdue $1.1 billion payment on a bond issued by Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA has triggered a ''credit event'' .

''They can either make a decision at this meeting or vote to have another meeting to discuss the question further,'' an ISDA spokeswoman told AFP by email.

President Nicolas Maduro's cash-strapped socialist government must repay at least $81 million on another PDVSA bond by this week-end, at least $1.47 billion interest on various bonds by the end of the year, and then about $8 billion by 2018.

That's a tough prospect, as the country has less that $10 billion in hard currency reserves.

Some analysts say Venezuela will try to stave any decision off beyond Monday, which foreign creditors have been invited to Caracas to hear Maduro's proposals on how he intends to restructure his country's debt.

The owed funds comprise at least $60 billion in tradable sovereign paper and an estimated $96 billion more held by China, Russia and creditors to state oil company PDVSA.