Yahoo News Greece PM In New Bid For More Reform Time
The Greek Prime Minister has met the German Chancellor to plead for more time to carry out austerity reforms required under the terms of its international bailout.
Although Angela Merkel did not directly reference the request, she made clear to Antonis Samaris at a post-meeting news conference that a report from the so-called troika monitoring Greek austerity implementation will help determine the next steps.
Mrs Merkel iterated a number of times that "Germany will support Greece in delivering on its obligations and promises" and said that she "wanted to see Greece stay in the eurozone".
And she was firm that stringent monitoring is essential to ensure that "deeds follow words".
The troika, comprising members from the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, is due to release its report in October.
The Greek government believes it will need more time beyond the mid-2014 deadline to implement the full gamut of measures such as privatisation, spending cuts and labour reforms to the tune of 11.6bn euro (£9.16bn).
Mr Samaras argued: "We don't want more aid ... but we need breathing space".
But Germany and France believe that to give more time is not without cost - that to renegotiate those terms would involve the nations contributing to the emergency fund having to go back to domestic parliaments to ask for more money, which is unlikely to be forthcoming.
:: Mr Samaras travels to Paris on Saturday for a similar meeting with French President Francois Hollande.
More From Sky News
