Greece hopes to get more time to repay bailout loans, a day before EU and IMF inspectors start a visit to assess if new austerity plans are tough enough to tidy up its public finances.
Struggling with a deep recession, weak revenues and growing market expectations that a debt restructuring is inevitable, the fiscally crippled country faces a gruelling inspection a year after its euro zone partners and the IMF saved it from bankruptcy with a €110bn bailout loan.
Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou, who unveiled new plans to fight rampant tax evasion - a priority for its international lenders - became the first Greek official to float the idea of a further easing of conditions on the bailout.
Also setting a precedent in the debate on how to resolve Greece's fiscal dilemma was European central banker Nout Wellink.
In comments to students in the Netherlands, he became the first member of the ECB's governing council to point to a possible rescheduling of repayments on the country's debt.
Papaconstantinou has said Greece would welcome having more time to pay back its bailout funds, at a lower interest rate, after the EU already sweetened the deal in March.
Analysts have said a rescheduling of repayment terms, even covering both the EU/IMF bailout monies and Greece's sovereign debt, would not be enough to avoid a broader restructuring.
EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn has again ruled out a Greek debt restructuring.
Papaconstantinou did not say if lengthening the bailout repayments would be discussed with the EU and IMF inspectors.
During the inspection visit, Greece will need to convince its international lenders, who will start combing through data on Tuesday before mission chiefs arrive next week, that new fiscal and privatisation plans meet targets.
Officials close to the troika of ECB, European Commission and IMF said Greece's plan unveiled mid-April to save €23bn in 2012-2015 and an extra €3bn this year to compensate weaker-than-expected revenues lacked substance and had to be fleshed out.
Papaconstantinou has also outlined plans to raise €11.8bn over the next three years in a new tax evasion crackdown that will boost the police's role in pursuing tax dodgers and social security frauds - one of the key elements of the 2011-2015 fiscal plan.
Tax evasion is rampant in Greece, with the government estimating that €15bn slip through tax officials' nets each year.
Successive governments have battled it unsuccessfully and Papaconstantinou said Greece is also in talks with Switzerland to uncover and tax funds that Greek residents have funneled to Swiss banks.
