16.02.12

Greece bailout: 'Substantial progress' after eurozone talks.

Greece has made "substantial progress" in convincing eurozone nations that it should get fresh bailout funds, but there will likely be no decision until Monday, the head of the Eurogroup says.

Jean-Claude Juncker said more work was needed to strengthen surveillance of how Greece's austerity proposals would be implemented.

He was speaking after a conference call with eurozone finance ministers.

Athens hopes for a 130bn-euro (£110bn; $170bn) bailout from the EU and IMF.

The "troika" of institutional lenders - the EU, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank (ECB) - have been demanding that Greece identify 325m euros of further spending cuts.

"Substantial further progress has been made since yesterday," Mr Juncker said in a statement.

"First, we received the strong assurances provided by the leaders of the two coalition parties in Greece's government.

"Second, the troika finalised and presented its analysis on the sustainability of Greece's public debt.

"Third, further technical work between Greece and the troika has led to the identification of the required additional consolidation measures of 325 million euros and the establishment of a detailed list of prior actions together with a timeline for their implementation."