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Greek government coalition talks on austerity measures ended 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 governmental source told AFP, after the coalition talks broke up.
Representatives of the EU, IMF and European Central Bank, which have been organizing 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.
The coalition talks are aimed at agreeing on a set of austerity measures which will persuade the bailout troika to start rolling out a loan package of 130 billion euros, the second such emergency deal.
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.
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." (AFP)
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 governmental source told AFP, after the coalition talks broke up.
Representatives of the EU, IMF and European Central Bank, which have been organizing 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.
The coalition talks are aimed at agreeing on a set of austerity measures which will persuade the bailout troika to start rolling out a loan package of 130 billion euros, the second such emergency deal.
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.
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." (AFP)
