GREECE

Greece plays waiting game during eurozone meeting

Despite Greek political leaders finally agreeing on austerity measures to secure a second bailout, eurozone finance ministers meeting in Brussels are wavering on whether to green light the loans.

Despite reaching a deal Thursday on austerity measures demanded by Greece's international lenders as a condition for further aid, Greece does not have its next bailout completely locked up.

Final word still needs to be given by European finance ministers, who are meeting in Brussels. Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, arriving for the meeting, said Greece "now needed the political endorsement of the eurogroup for the final step."

The International Monetary Fund has also had an important role in the negotiations as one of the lenders who would provide emergency loans to Greece.

"An important initial step was to get the agreement among the coalition leaders in Athens and the next step is to continue discussions on that basis," said IMF spokesman Gary Rice in Washington on Thursday. "We should look ahead to the eurogroup meeting and what comes from that."

IMF head Christine Lagarde was in Brussels for the meeting, and called the news from Athens "encouraging."

Final deal will have to wait

Despite the clock counting down for Greece - with a 14.5-billion-euro bond repayment due on March 20 - a bailout deal was not likely to be finalized at Thursday's meeting.

"I don't think that we will have a final decision today," said Jean-Claude Juncker, who heads the finance ministers' meetings and is also the prime minister of Luxembourg. "This is not a disaster, the debate has to be continued."

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said "there will not be a result" at the Brussels meeting. He added "we're not there," indicating that Greece may not have yet ticked all the boxes needed before a new bailout could be approved.

The deal reached by Greece's political leadership ushered in new austerity measures. Cuts to state and private pensions worth some 300 billion euros ($398 billion) had been amongst the most contentious sticking points. Deputy Labor Minister Yannis Koutsoukos, a socialist, resigned shortly after the deal was approved, saying it would be "painful for working people."

The talks had dragged on for several days.

mz/msh (AFP, Reuters, dpa, AP)