Greece’s Varoufakis says proposed debt deal ‘clearly unviable’

A statement from Tsipras’ office said: “The prime minister presented three leaders [with] Greece’s proposal for a mutually beneficial agreement that will give a definitive solution and not a postponement of addressing the problem”.

Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem told the press after the meeting that new proposals from Greece came in too late for the finance ministers to evaluate them.

Greeks are due to vote on whether to accept or reject the latest terms offered by creditors to Athens in order to unlock billions of euros in bailout funds.

“Over the past days and weeks the Greek government has been making concessions continuously”, he said.

“All of these are choices that we wouldn’t have made if we had policy space…”

Later on Tuesday, Greece’s Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis indicated on a call with European counterparts that Athens might scrap a controversial July 5th referendum if a deal was reached, according to euro zone sources.

He says there is nothing new on the table and added that “there is a bigger difference rather than a coming together”.

Mr. Schelling said that the last moment for a deal between Greece and its creditors would be Sunday, but that he was pushing for an agreement Thursday. Chancellor Merkel has said at least one so-called ΄prior action΄ has to be passed by the Greek parliament before she puts a rescue agreement to Germany΄s Bundestag.

Mr. Tsipras has attacked the creditors’ demands, arguing that as long as Greece introduces measures that reach deficit targets it shouldn’t matter how it gets there. Such an attitude they say is more likely only to impede progress in the negotiations.

Otherwise, Athens may default on its debts which could lead to the country leaving the single currency. Responsibility for the decision is exclusively up to Greece.

Mr Tsipras, whose radical Syriza party won elections in January after promising Greeks it would end five years of bitter bailout-imposed austerity, insisted a deal was still possible.

But disagreements remain despite about nine hours of talks held since Wednesday between Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and top officials from the creditor institutions – the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund. “The nation’s most vital interests demand that the country remains at the heart of Europe”.

Meanwhile, eurozone finance ministers begin arriving for their meeting. They have so far moved backwards.

International Monetary Fund spokesman Gerry Rice said discussions on debt sustainability and financing for Greece will have to wait until Athens agrees and implements key reforms. The banking official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision was not publicly released, said the European Central Bank would meet again within the next 24 hours if necessary.

The Greek government’s immediate priority on Monday will to be to keep the country’s banks open.

Amid the uncertainty, Greek account-holders took more than $2.17-billion a day out of the banks at the end of last week – more than one per cent of the total.