EU ramps up pressure on Greece as timetable slips

Page last updated at 06:36 GMT, Monday, February 6, 2012 - 11:36 EST

The West Australian:

Prime Minister Lucas Papademos (2R) with far-right Laos party leader George Karantzaferis (L), conservative New Democracy...

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Embattled Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos faced growing EU pressure Monday to agree tough new austerity measures in a new bailout as the timetable for a showdown with his coalition partners slipped.

As calls for a general strike compounded the sense of crisis, a key meeting due later Monday with heads of the socialist, conservative and far-right parties which form his coalition government was put back.

The talks, needed to secure approval of stinging austerity measures, "will very probably be held on Tuesday," a government source told AFP, adding: "The negotiations continue, there are still questions to address."

Papademos was to meet officials from the EU, European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday, aiming to wrap up weeks of negotiations and save his country from a historic default in March that could roil the 17-nation eurozone and undercut a global economic recovery.

In Paris, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy ramped up pressure on Athens, as did the spokesman for a European commissioner in Brussels.

Read the whole story: The West Australian