Defiant Greek PM vows referendum will go ahead

European leaders have declined to consider any fresh debt offer before Sunday's vote

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras today vowed to go ahead with a controversial bailout referendum despite pressure from European leaders as they declined to consider any fresh debt offer before Sunday's vote.

Hours after Greece became the first advanced economy to default on an IMF repayment, the leftist leader used a live TV address to urge Greeks to vote 'No' on Sunday to creditors' current demands.

Read more from our special coverage on "GREECE CRISIS"

• Moody's cuts Greece rating deeper into junk territory
• Greek PM tells voters rejecting austerity will yield better deal
• Greece crisis: Possible scenarios and the opportunity
• Greece: IMF says payment delays no help to nations in crisis
• Greece deal possible before July 20 bonds payment: euro zone official

Tsipras, at loggerheads with Greece's creditors since his election in January, insisted a 'No' vote would "not signify a rupture with Europe" despite efforts by EU leaders to cast it as a referendum on Greece's place in the bloc.

"Come Monday, the Greek government will be at the negotiating table after the referendum, with better terms for the Greek people," he added, standing between Greek and EU flags.

His comments came after Greece yesterday made a last-minute proposal for a third bailout worth nearly 30 billion euros ($33 billion) to follow the two rescue programmes worth 240 billion euros that cash-strapped Athens has received since 2010.

Frustrated eurozone finance ministers agreed today to wait until after the referendum before holding any more talks, saying there were "no grounds" for further discussions.

Most Greeks are still only allowed to withdraw 60 euros ($66) per day after capital controls.

But nearly 1,000 banks reopened today to let elderly people draw a limited amount from their pensions, prompting chaotic scenes.

"I worked for 50 years on the sea and now I am a beggar for 120 euros," one pensioner in Athens said. "I have no money for medication for my wife, who had an operation and is ill."

Finance ministry employees hung a huge banner saying "No to blackmail and austerity" out of the window of their office.

Greece entered uncharted waters with its default on a 1.5 billion euro ($1.7 billion) International Monetary Fund loan, the first by an advanced economy, and expiry of its current European bailout at 2200 GMT yesterday.

It is now without external financial assistance for the first time in five years.

However stock markets rebounded on the latest developments amid hopes that a deal could still be struck to keep Greece in the eurozone.