Brussels---Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was expected to meet with Angela Merkel in Brussels Wednesday after the EU's top official for the euro said a breakthrough bailout deal could be "days" away.
The mooted meeting with the German chancellor comes with cash-strapped Greece having submitted new proposals to end a standoff with the EU and IMF, which have demanded tough reforms in exchange for giving Athens the final 7.2 billion euros ($8.1 billion) of its bailout funds.
The international rescue package expires at the end of the month, and Athens desperately needs the cash to avoid a default and a possible messy exit from Europe's 19-country single currency area.
The euro strengthened Wednesday as investors bet Greece was nearing a bailout deal with its international creditors. The 19-nation currency rose to $1.1297 and 140.51 yen in Tokyo trade from $1.1280 and 140.23 yen in New York
Tsipras's meeting with Merkel, along with potential talks with French President Francois Hollande, was due to take place on the sidelines of an EU-Latin America summit.
It was to occur a day after Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU's vice president responsible for the euro, told reporters that reaching an agreement "within (the) coming days is possible".
But he urged the Greeks to show "less tactical manoeuvring and more work on substance" to seal a deal.
European sources told AFP Greece was still refusing budget targets that the European Union and the International Monetary Fund see as sacrosanct.
A huge gulf remains between creditors and the Greek government, which came to power in January on the back of promises to end five years of painful austerity measures resulting from bailout programmes.
European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker is unlikely to be present at Wednesday's meeting, after his own head-to-head with Tsipras last week in Brussels disastrously ended with the Greek premier dismissing Juncker's "absurd proposal".
Juncker told fellow European commissioners on Tuesday that a new Tsipras meeting would be a "waste of time" and that it would be "better to meet with the Latin Americans", an EU source said.
- 'Beginning of the end' -
Meanwhile in Athens, Tsipras issued a dire warning that the fate of the eurozone, the central plank of a European project formed in the ashes of World War II, was at stake if the negotiations fail.
"I think that is evident. It would be the beginning of the end for the eurozone," Tsipras told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
Yet Tsipras is also facing huge pressure at home from the hardline wing of his own Syriza party, which has vowed to resist any attempt to bow to the demands of Greece's creditors.
AFP
