Greece, creditors seek breakthrough as clock runs down

Greece and its lenders enter a decisive weekend of negotiations in a bid to agree on a package of cuts and reforms that would unlock another 7.2 billion euros and allow Athens to keep meeting its debt repayments.

Talks at the Brussels Group level continued Friday as Washington issued a fresh warning to all sides about the dangers of no consensus being reached soon. Speaking after the G7 meeting in Dresden, Germany, US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew warned that the chances of an ?accident? are growing.

?If you look from January until now, too much time has been spent unproductively,? he said. ?I think waiting until the day or two before whatever the deadline is, is just a way of courting an accident.?

Lew also emphasized that although Greece would have to take some tough decisions in the coming days, its lenders will also need to compromise so there can be an accord. ?All parties need to move,? said the American official. ?There needs to be some flexibility on the part of the institutions.?

The Greek government was warned on Thursday that it only had a few days to reach a deal otherwise there would not be enough time for eurozone parliaments to agree to the disbursal of new loans before the end of the month, when the current program extension ends.

Greece has to pay just under 300 million euros to the International Monetary Fund on June 5 and the government has sent mixed messages over whether it will be in a position to meet this commitment. If the payment is made, then Athens has to find another 1.3 billion euros during the course of next month to meet its obligations to the Washington-based organization. This has put extra pressure on Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to ensure talks conclude successfully as quickly as possible.

...