Break in Greek reform talks ahead of IMF meet: Minister

Greece and its international creditors suspended early today a tough round of talks on the country's latest reforms, taking a break for a scheduled IMF meet, the Greek finance minister said.

"It was decided to have a pause so we can all go to Washington" for the annual spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos told reporters.

"We will reach a staff level agreement just ahead of the (April 22) Eurogroup, there was major progress on several issues," Tsakalotos said, adding that the talks in Athens were to resume on Monday.

The talks have mostly hinged on an unpopular pensions overhaul and the management of bad loans weighing down Greek banks, with Athens resisting pressure to sell them to distress funds.

In a last-minute breakthrough, the Greek energy ministry on Tuesday said it had agreed to launch in June the sale of at least 20 percent in state electricity distributor Admie.

The latest round of creditor talks -- which are never easy in the best of circumstances -- were clouded by allegations that senior IMF officials sought to engineer a Greek default.

Just before the talks opened last week, a WikiLeaks report said the IMF was looking for a crisis "event" to push Greece and European negotiators into accepting its fiscal targets, citing an intercepted conversation between senior IMF officials.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde later dismissed this notion as "nonsense".