MINISTER FOR FINANCE Michael Noonan is today beginning a four-day trip to the United States in a bid to promote new inward investment to Ireland.

The trip will see Noonan attend meetings set up by the Central Bank and National Treasury Management Agency, with at least 15 different private meetings arranged for the tour, the Irish Times reports.

Among the meetings Noonan will hold are face-to-face talks with investors who may be considering acquiring the US-based loan book of Anglo Irish Bank – a portfolio worth an estimated $10bn (€7bn).

RTÉ adds that Noonan will also meet the US Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner – the first time that Geithner will have met a member of the Irish administration since rumours first emerged that Geithner put the brakes on any Irish plans to burn its senior bondholders.

Morgan Kelly wrote in an Irish Times column last month that Geithner had demanded that any plans for an orderly sovereign default be put on ice, for fears that American investment funds could face massive losses on their investments.

He will also travel to the New York Stock Exchange to meet with investors there, as well as figures from the IMF.