Brussels---Eurozone finance ministers on Wednesday halted crunch talks on a desperately needed Greece bailout deal until the next day, as Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras lashed out at his country's creditors.
The ministers said that a "difficult" seven-hour meeting between Greece's leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Athens's EU-IMF creditors earlier Wednesday had failed to give them enough to work towards a deal through the night.
Time is running out, with Athens needing an accord to unlock vital bailout funds and avoid defaulting on a huge International Monetary Fund payment on June 30, putting its place in the eurozone at risk.
"We have not reached agreement yet, but we are determined to continue our work towards doing what is necessary," Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem told reporters after the talks broke up after around one hour.
"We will now adjourn the meeting and reconvene at one o'clock tomorrow (1100 GMT)."
Finnish Finance Minister Alexander Stubb said he still hoped for a deal.
"I don't see this meeting as a waste of time because we will have a meeting tomorrow morning and hopefully find a proposal on the table," he said.
Tsipras and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker were due to hold fresh talks starting at 11pm (2100 GMT) on Wednesday night, European sources said.
Eurozone stock markets fell at close, weighed down by renewed concerns about a deal, with Frankfurt dropping 0.62 percent, Paris sliding 0.24 percent, Madrid 0.82 percent lower, Milan down 0.16 percent and Greece losing 1.77 percent.
"We are in a face-saving game," a source close to the negotiation said after the round of minister talks ended, the third in less than a week.
- 'Strange position' -
Anti-austerity leader Tsipras had flown to Brussels early Wednesday for a crunch meeting with Juncker, IMF chief Christine Lagarde and European Central Bank boss Mario Draghi.
But Athens rejected what it said were fresh demands from its creditors on top of a reform plan that it submitted last week to end a five-month standoff that started with Tsipras's election in January.
"This strange position maybe hides two things: either they do not want an agreement or they are serving specific interests in Greece," Tsipras said as he went into the talks.
"The repeated rejection of equivalent measures by certain institutions never occurred before -- neither in Ireland nor Portugal," he tweeted, referring to bailouts to those two countries.
Tsipras has vowed to end five years of austerity imposed under two bailouts worth 240 billion euros, and has resisted demands by creditors for spending cuts and pension reforms.
But the European-IMF lenders have refused to unlock the last 7.2 billion euros ($8.1 billion) of Greece's bailout before it expires on June 30, which Greece needs to pay a 1.5-billion-euro IMF loan repayment on the same day.
AFP
