Greek pressure mounts as ECB shows caution on emergency cash

By Nikos Chrysoloras & Paul Gordon

Pressure mounted on Greece as U.S. and European officials called on the government to reach a deal with its creditors and the European Central Bank granted the nation's cash-strapped banks only a small increase in emergency funds.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's administration will submit a request to the euro area for a six-month loan extension on Thursday, a day later than originally planned, according to a government official. ECB policy makers on Wednesday raised the limit on Emergency Liquidity Assistance for Greek banks to 68.3 billion euros ($77.9 billion) from 65 billion euros, a euro-area central-bank official said. Both officials asked not to be identified because the matters are private.

Greece has been at odds with other euro-area governments over the formula needed to extend the country's 240 billion-euro rescue beyond its expiry at the end of February. The country risks being left without a financial backstop and on course to default on some of its liabilities as early as next month if it doesn't reach a creditor accord.

Documents outlining the government's stance during two closed-door meetings with euro-area finance ministers and representatives of the so-called troika of the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the ECB, showed Athens is still seeking to radically alter the terms of the bailout memorandum.

'Anathema'

"The words 'memorandum' and 'troika' are anathema to the Greek government," said Theodore Couloumbis, a professor of international relations at the University of Athens. "For the other side, fulfillment of existing contractual commitments is an article of faith," he said by e-mail.

U.S. Treasury...