EU's Moscovici - Greek deal doable but big gaps remain in talks

PARIS (Reuters) - It is possible to reach a deal on Greece in the coming weeks but it will depend on the degree of political will as there are still big gaps in the talks on labour and pension issues, a top EU official said on Wednesday. "We must now go quickly, we must accelerate, a deal must be reached in the next few weeks. I think it's doable," EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici told a French Senate committee gathering in Paris. Referring to comments by Greek officials that a deal must be reached by June 5, he said he was aware of "tensions" over liquidity issues but declined to give a specific deadline. "The degree of political will will determine what happens next," he said, adding that there has been more progress in the past three weeks than in the previous months. "But we are not there yet. Big gaps remain ... if we want to reach a deal in the coming weeks, in particular on pensions and labour rules." Greece's talks with the European Union and International Monetary Fund lenders have dragged on for four months. A successful conclusion would release around 7.2 billion euros (5 billion pounds) in aid, but the negotiations have stumbled over pension and labour reform proposed by the creditors and resisted by Athens. Athens faces several payments totaling about 1.5 billion euros to the IMF next month. (Reporting by Ingrid Melander, Jean-Baptiste Vey and Jessica Chen; Editing by Hugh Lawson)