Greece's finance minister said that his country had been given more time by its international lenders to implement austerity cuts, an assertion played down by leading European Union officials.
European paymaster Germany said the EU would only decide on the matter after receiving a report on Greece's progress from the 'troika' of lenders - the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund - while ECB President Mario Draghi said no final decision had been made.
But Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said the delay had already been agreed and that a package of austerity measures would be put to parliament next week - even though junior coalition partners have refused to back some of the proposals.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble stressed the need for Greece to fulfil its bailout terms. But he added: "If the troika should come to the conclusion that there are objective things that the Greeks cannot change on their own and if it makes suggestions for how to solve this, then we will consult on that in the German Bundestag (lower house of parliament) and decide on them accordingly".
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