Deputy Economy Minister Petros Doukas was forced to deny plans to resign after it emerged that his top personal assistant withdrew yesterday, at the last moment, a lawsuit that was expected to result in the state returning hundreds of millions of euros to pensioners in illegally levied social security contributions.

“There is no such issue,” the deputy minister said, when asked whether he was to step down.

In a highly unusual move, Vassilis Goulas, head of Doukas’s private office, withdrew his suit before the State Auditors Council — one of Greece’s three highest courts, which is also responsible for deciding on pensions and for auditing public accounts — as discussion of the case was to start.

Goulas, who tabled his suit during the previous PASOK administration, was widely expected to win the case yesterday, and had secured a favorable ruling from a lower court in 2004. He had been seeking the return of three years’ contributions to the LAFKA fund, set up in 1992 as a temporary measure to bolster the finances of the social security system.

A ruling by the State Auditors Council in favor of Goulas would have forced the state to return an estimated 800 million euros to at least 150,000 pensioners. Now, though other suits are pending on the LAFKA issue, the matter is not expected to reach the council for at least another year. Goulas gave no explanation for his volte-face.