Senior Argentine officials are set to begin formal talks with Paris Club representatives on Wednesday to repay some $10 billion the South American government owes the group of creditor nations.

President Cristina Kirchner's government has stepped up its efforts in the past year to settle Argentina's unpaid debts in a move that analysts say is aimed at obtaining outside financing to alleviate crippling U.S. dollar shortages. Argentina pitched a proposal to the club in January, but a deal might not be imminent if recent comments by her top ministers are any guide.

"It's a complex, difficult negotiation that requires the necessary time to reach the objectives of both parties," Mrs. Kirchner's cabinet chief, Jorge Capitanich, told reporters Tuesday.

His comments echoed those made by Economy Minister Axel Kicillof the previous evening before he boarded a flight to Paris. Mr. Kicillof, who leads the Argentine negotiating team, said there was no guarantee of a swift resolution.

Argentina owed about $6.5 billion to club governments--including Germany, the U.S. and Japan--at the end of 2012, according to the Paris Club. Late interest and penalties push up the total to around $10 billion.

The amount of debt, the interest rate, and the payment mechanism and calendar are subject to negotiation, Mr. Capitanich said.

A Paris Club spokeswoman declined to comment on Wednesday's meeting.

A deal might eventually give Argentina access to credit insurance, loan guarantees and financing provided by the export credit agencies of Paris Club members. However, club payments could stretch the central bank's already depleted foreign currency reserves.

"This isn't necessarily going to mean fresh funds for the government...but it reinforces the idea that Argentina is trying to settle with all of its creditors," says Noelia Lucini, who manages about $60 million in bonds at Capital Markets Argentina.

Years of double-digit inflation caused by government overspending have led investors to pull billions of dollars out of Argentina since Mrs. Kirchner took office in 2007. The scarcity of hard currency forced Mrs. Kirchner to devalue the peso in January and starve the economy of imported goods.

Now, Argentina's economy is on the brink of a recession and some private sector estimates put annual inflation well above 30%. A record soy harvest has brought some relief to reserves--now at a seven-and-a-half-year low of $28.5 billion. The end of the harvest in July is expected to bring renewed pressure on reserves and the currency.

Siobhan Morden, head of Latin America strategy at Jeffries, said the government's priorities should be fixing the economy and cutting a deal with creditors who are suing the government in U.S. courts if it wants to borrow abroad to ease dollar shortages.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide next month if it will hear Argentina's appeal in a lawsuit brought by hedge funds seeking full payment on their holdings of defaulted Argentine bonds. If the justices refuse the appeal, Mrs. Kirchner will have to pay the hedge funds or risk defaulting on her government's current bonds.

"[The Paris Club] is not a substitute or a solution for the balance of payments crisis. It won't allow them back into the capital markets because we are waiting to see what happens in the Supreme Court," Mrs. Morden said.

The Paris Club was created in 1956 to help Argentina avoid a default on its sovereign debt.

Argentina's latest run in with the club stems from its default on about $100 billion in 2001. Argentina negotiated with the Paris Club in 2008 and 2010, but those talks failed to produce a breakthrough.

It isn't clear if the Kirchner administration is now willing to cede ground on a long-standing Paris Club requirement that Argentina have a program with the International Monetary Fund as a condition of reaching a settlement.

Earlier this year, Mr. Kicillof said he saw no reason why Argentina should submit itself to IMF scrutiny.

MarketWatch