(Athens, GRC) - Greek government coalition
leaders ended lengthy talks on austerity measures Wednesday, with one remaining
point of disagreement, the prime minister's office said.
The three coalition partners who took part in
the talks on a rescue plan for the Greek economy reached agreement on "all
the points of the plan except one" said the prime minister's office which
still hopes for a complete deal to be reached by Thursday evening.
The remaining bone of contention is "the
reduction of pensions," a government source told AFP, after the coalition
talks broke up.
Representatives of the EU, IMF and European
Central Bank, which have been organising massive bailout loans for debt-laden
Athens, went straight into talks with Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos
after the eight-hour coalition talks ended, a government source told AFP.
The EU-IMF-ECB troika talks with Papademos
were aimed at "concluding a deal before the Eurogroup meeting," of
eurozone finance ministers scheduled to take place in Brussels on Thursday.
Agreement on new measures demanded by the EU,
the IMF and the European Central Bank -- known as the 'troika' -- and on a
debt-write down by banks would open the way for a second rescue and so close a
key chapter in the eurozone crisis.
This money is vital to prevent eurozone
member Greece from defaulting on 14.5 billion euros ($19.2 billion) worth of
payments to bond holders which will fall due on March 20.
The socialist, conservative and far-right
leaders must approve reported cuts to the minimum wage -- strongly resisted by
unions -- in addition to pension reductions and 15,000 civil service
redundancies.
Far-right leader Georgios Karatzaferis was
the first to emerge from the coalition talks late Wednesday, denouncing the
pressure which the troika of creditors was bringing to bear on the government
for more painful cuts in public spending.
"I made clear my intentions right at the
start of the meeting. I cannot in one hour sign up to a plan which will affect
the country for 40 or 50 years with receiving (legal) assurances that the
measures are going to get the country out of its impasse," he told
reporters.
According to Papademos' office "Mr
Karatzaferis expressed numerous reservations," about the plan.
Conservative leader Antonis Samaras stressed
that "talks will continue on the question of retirement."
"At this difficult moment, we must take
care of retirees," he said.
The party heads earlier in the day received a
50-page text with the austerity cuts demanded in return for new loans under a
130-billion euro ($171-billion) eurozone bailout originally agreed in October.
The text was drawn up during a night of
marathon talks between Papademos and representatives from the troika aimed at
setting up a second rescue for Athens following an initial bailout worth 110
billion euros in May 2010.
Private creditors, who are negotiating with
Greece a debt write-off worth at least 100 billion euros, are to meet on
Thursday in Paris, according to a spokesman.
Greece has run up total debt of about 350
billion euros, roughly 160 percent of its gross domestic product, and the IMF
has insisted that level be brought down to a maximum of 120 percent of GDP in
2020.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday
that the ECB would participate in a writedown of Greece's debt by agreeing
"to exchange the government bonds it purchased in the secondary market
last year at a price below face value, provided the debt-restructuring talks
have a successful outcome."
On bond markets, where tension has eased
markedly since the beginning of the year, the reaction was subdued.
"Whether this turns out to be the good
news that the market is currently expecting, or another short term rally
followed by a painful pull back remains to be seen," analyst Alistair Cotton said in a note.
"But there is reason to remain sceptical
given the number of times over the last two years news about a Greek rescue
deal moved the market in exactly the same way; euro positive on the rumour,
retracement on the fact," he said.
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