Greece crunch debt talks restart after no late-night deal

Greece will restart crunch talks with its creditors today in a bid to save Athens from default, hours after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras lashed out at lenders for rejecting his reform plans.
Talks were due to start at 6:00 AM (0930 IST), a European source told AFP, after late-night talks last evening ended without a breakthrough as Greece's leaders rejected reforms demanded debtors.
Tsipras was due to resume meetings with the heads of the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank - the "troika" of Greece's main bailout monitors - at 1230 IST.
They will try to finalise a deal in time to have it approved at a meeting of eurozone finance ministers later in the day, and then rubber-stamped by national leaders meeting at European Union summit today and tomorrow.

Discussions have become increasingly acrimonious ahead of a June 30 payment deadline and yesterday Greece withdrew some of its proposals, apparently for the first time since negotiations began.
Greek government sources said two were withdrawn from the list under pressure from Tsipras's left-wing Syriza party, including an unpopular increase in pensions contributions. The Greek side is seeking to offset the changes financially with other measures, sources said.

A European source told AFP there was "hope of an agreement between the (creditor) institutions and Greek authorities" from the talks between Tsipras and the EU-IMF.
The Eurogroup of finance ministers from the 19-country currency union also plan to restart talks on releasing further financial aid for Greece at 1630 IST today after talks the previous night ended only an hour in.

"We have not reached agreement yet, but we are determined to continue our work towards doing what is necessary," Jeroen Dijsselbloem, head of the Eurogroup, told reporters.
The Eurozone's main stock markets fell yesterday as initial optimism for a deal faded, with Asian equities continuing the slide this morning over fears of the global economic fallout if no deal is reached.
Anti-austerity leader Tsipras flew to Brussels early yesterday for a crunch meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, IMF chief Christine Lagarde and European Central Bank boss Mario Draghi.
But after the talks once again stalled, he lashed out at Greece's creditors over what he said were fresh demands they had made in addition to a reform plan Athens submitted last week to end the five-month standoff.