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Greece debt talks: Crisis deepens amid deadlock
(FRANKS..) Eurozone finance ministers are meeting in a desperate bid to find a solution to the Greece debt crisis amid deadlock between Athens and its creditors.
Earlier talks between Greece's Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, and the country's international lenders ended without agreement.
Ahead of the Eurogroup meeting, the German finance minister warned that the gap between the two sides was widening.
Greece must repay a €1.6bn (£1.1bn) IMF loan by next Tuesday or face default.
That could lead to Greece exiting the eurozone, with possible repercussions for the rest of Europe and the world economy.
Only once agreement is reached will the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) unlock the final €7.2bn tranche of bailout funds for cash-strapped Greece.
The crisis threatens to overshadow a summit of EU leaders opening on Thursday afternoon.
Sticking to proposals
The Greek government has criticised the international creditors for rejecting its ideas, which were initially welcomed.
Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem said finance ministers, who had been due to finalise a deal, would be using the creditors' plans as a basis for an agreement.
"The only thing we have presented to the Eurogroup is what the institutions have made together," he said.
"We don't have agreement from the Greeks on that so we will have to hear in the Eurogroup meeting from the Greek side what their ideas are, what they could agree to, what they could not agree to and we'll take it from there."
Greece's Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis will attend the meeting and put forward Athens' own proposal.
Meanwhile German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said: "The decisions lie exclusively with the Greek authorities.
Correspondents say they include far more tax rises and far fewer spending cuts than creditors had suggested, and the IMF in particular is refusing to accept them.
Why the IMF is worried - by Andrew Walker, BBC economics correspondent
Throughout the Greek crisis, the IMF has been concerned that the programme should add up. That means that specific actions should be able to achieve whatever targets are agreed for the Greek government's borrowing needs.
In the current impasse, one concern is that the Greek proposals include too much emphasis on tax rather than spending.
The IMF worry is that might aggravate the economy's weakness. For the long term the IMF's concern is that Greece should ultimately have a sustainable debt burden and has been telling the eurozone that it should be thinking about debt relief.
Like the other players in this crisis, the IMF has politics to contend with: IMF member countries (Brazil has been a notable example) who have in the past been unhappy about the organisation's financial support for Greece.
The Greek prime minister held talks on Thursday morning with IMF leader Christine Lagarde and European Central Bank head Mario Draghi as well as Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, and Eurogroup leader Mr Dijsselbloem.
Technical experts met several hours earlier to continue deliberations.
Eurozone finance minister had been due to finalise an agreement on Thursday afternoon, but no deal was struck.
Media captionGreece's debt dilemma explained in 75 seconds
Greece has refused to accept cuts to pension payments or public sector wages
The IMF is pushing for deeper spending cuts, not just more tax rises
A key point of friction is a special benefit paid to some low-income pensioners, which creditors want scrapped
Creditors also want a wider VAT base; Greece says it will not allow extra VAT on medicines or electricity bills, and has also resisted calls for VAT hikes on hotels and restaurants
Athens wants a concrete commitment to debt relief, something its creditors are not offering
If an agreement is reached, it will have to be endorsed by Greece's parliament, with some critics at home accusing the prime minister of reneging on his party's campaign pledge to end austerity.
The Greek debt crisis is set to dominate the summit of European leaders which starts in Brussels on Thursday.
The main focus of the summit on Thursday is set to be the migration crisis, which has seen thousands of illegal migrants arriving in southern Europe, and security concerns in the wake of the conflict in Ukraine.
Thursday-Friday: Finance ministers to put finishing touches to a debt deal if reached; then scheduled meeting of all 28 EU member states - any agreement could receive leaders' backing here
Saturday-Tuesday: Agreement will need to be approved by Greek parliament and other eurozone governments - including vote in German Bundestag
Tuesday 30 June: Deadline for Greek repayment of €1.6bn to IMF
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Eurozone finance ministers are meeting in a desperate bid to find a solution to the Greece debt crisis amid deadlock between Athens and its creditors.
