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‘Major’ decision on Greece on Saturday: Dijsselbloem

The plan will face its first hurdle in the Greek Parliament on Friday.

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A proposal had been promised by midnight on Thursday, and will now likely be reviewed by creditors over the next few days before being presented at the EU Summit on Sunday.

Greece has submitted its formal request to the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) on Wednesday, asking for a three-year loan from the bailout fund, aiming to avoid a possible Greek default and “Grexit”.

He offered no solution to the conundrum, which implied that Greece’s debt problem might not be soluble within the eurozone.

Thursday saw Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras trying to secure agreement on reforms the country’s creditors are demanding before they provide further funding to prop up the Greek economy.

“It’s a far reaching decision we’ll have to take”, Dijsselbloem said.

But having won wide public support at the referendum and the subsequent backing of opposition parties, an emboldened Mr Tsiprasis expected to have an easier time facing down any resistance at home, allowing him to focus to appeasing creditors.

A government official quoted him as telling the party’s lawmakers that the referendum had given him a mandate to seek a better deal but not to leave the eurozone.

The plan was put forward as Germany, Greece’s biggest creditor, appeared to make a small concession by acknowledging Athens would need some debt restructuring as part of any new bailout programme.

The ever-deepening dramatic crisis around Greece’s massive debt and the policies of the Syriza government have seen the country go into arrears with a payment of 1.6 billion euro that had been due to the International Monetary Fund.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel ruled out debt reduction, saying she was against “the classic haircut”.

While Hans-Peter Friedrich told Deutschlandfunk radio: “Either the Greek government is tricking its own people or (it is tricking) us again”. A meeting of Eurogroup leaders is scheduled for Sunday afternoon, followed by a full European Union summit two hours later.

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Greece’s banks will remain closed until at least Monday with withdrawals from cash machines limited to £40.

Greece due to provide reform details to creditors