Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras arrives at a euro zone EU leaders
emergency summit on the situation in Greece, in Brussels. Reuters
AFP/Athens
Athens has made improvements to proposals for a bailout deal made to its creditors last week, a Greek government source said Tuesday, adding that a new pitch would be made over the next 48 hours.
"The Greek side has submitted proposals from (June 30), and they are still on the table, with certain improvements," the official said.
"They will be discussed today and tomorrow," the source said, adding that the proposals "include reforms, funding, investment and debt adjustment".
Greek Prime Minister Tsipras is taking part in an emergency European summit in Brussels and will address the European Parliament on Wednesday, with his radical left government under pressure to pledge fiscal reforms in return for a default-saving agreement.
The summit follows a Eurogroup meeting of finance ministers earlier on Tuesday to discuss the next steps after Sunday's shock referendum, in which over 61 percent of Greeks rejected the latest proposals from creditors in return for a new EU-IMF bailout.
Tsipras spoke to US President Barack Obama by telephone on Tuesday as the talks to avert a Greek exit from the eurozone became increasingly frantic.
The 40-year-old premier later sat down for talks with French President Francois Hollande, Germany's Angela Merkel and European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission said.
Greece is set to make a formal request for a new bailout programme as early as Wednesday, Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem said after eurozone finance ministers met to discuss the next steps after the Greek referendum.
'Still no basis' for talks: Merkel
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday that there was still no basis for talks on a new Greek bailout, as she arrived in Brussels for an emergency summit of eurozone leaders.
"We still do not have the basis for negotiations" for a new aid programme with the EU's bailout vehicle, the European Stability Mechanism, she told reporters ahead of the summit called in the wake of Greece's 'No' vote in a referendum on austerity.
Merkel said they would discuss how to go on, but "we will not be able to get a final picture. Though I have to say that it is not a question of weeks any more, but a question of a few days".
