The head of the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers has ruled out a final deal on a second Greek bail-out at talks in Brussels tonight.
Speaking before the meeting in Brussels, Jean-Claude Juncker said ministers had too many "points to clear up" for there to be any realistic chance of a deal tonight.
"I do not have reasons to believe that there will be a definitive deal this evening," Juncker said. "If it's not tonight, it will be done next week," he said.
He was speaking after Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos's office said the country's political leaders had reached a deal with EU and IMF lenders on reforms required in return for a new bail-out.
"The consultations between the government and the troika on the issue which remained open for further discussion were successfully completed this morning. The political leaders agreed on the outcome of these talks," a statement said.
Greek finance minister Evangelos Venizelos urged his euro zone counterparts to endorse the deal, adding that Greece had reached an accompanying deal with private creditors on the "basic parameters" of a debt writedown.
A spokesman for the International Monetary Fund said it was continuing talks with the Greek authorities on details of the new rescue package.
Marathon talks between the socialist, conservative and far-right party leaders backing Prime Minister Lucas Papademos' interim government early this morning ended with agreement on most of the measures demanded to make up a budget deficit shortage of around €3 billion.
But officials could not agree on how to cover a €625m gap in the deal, raising the daunting prospect that complementary pensions would have to be cut in the midst of a biting recession to make up the shortfall.
Full pensions are already slated for a 15% cut, according to reports, along with a 22% reduction in the minimum wage and 15,000 civil service layoffs under the measures demanded by the EU, IMF and the European Central Bank.
Greece has run up total debt of about €350 billion, roughly 160% of its gross domestic product, and the IMF has insisted that level be brought down to a maximum of 120% of GDP by 2020.
Private creditors are also negotiating a write-off of Greek debts worth at least €100 billion, and are to meet tomorrow in Paris, according to a spokesman. All eyes are on Greece amid fears a failure to meet its debt obligations - with a bond payment due March 20 - could spark a domino effect that undermines the entire euro common currency project.
Greece jobless rises to over 1 million in November
Greece's registered unemployed jumped to over a million people in November, or over 20% of the workforce, official data showed today as Athens faced fresh austerity demands from its public creditors.
The state statistics agency said 1.029 million people were unemployed in November, with over 164,000 losing their jobs over the previous month and 405,000 over a year as the government neared a debt deal entailing further labour cuts.
Nearly half of those aged up to 24 - 48% - are unemployed, and alongside women have been the hardest hit by a recession now in its fifth year.
Greek unions, which accuse the government of bowing to demands from its EU-IMF creditors in return for more bailout loans, today called a 48-hour general strike in retaliation.
In a separate statement, the agency said inflation had slowed to 2.3% in January, from 2.4% the previous month and 5.3% in January last year.
