Source: Reuters
Greek political leaders clinched a long-stalled deal on reforms and austerity measures to secure a second international bailout and avoid a chaotic default, hours before the country's financial backers began meeting in Brussels.
European Union partners and the International Monetary Fund have been exasperated by a string of broken promises and weeks of wrangling over sacrifices they demanded in return for a 130 billion euro ($172 billion) bailout, with time running out for Greece before a major March 20 bond redemption.
Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos set off for Brussels without a complete deal after all-night talks involving leaders of the three Greek coalition parties and chief EU and IMF inspectors left one sensitive issue - pension cuts - unresolved.
The final 300 million euro gap was bridged on Thursday in talks with the troika of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF, and endorsed by party leaders.
"The consultations between the government and the troika on the issue which remained open for further discussion were successfully completed this morning. The political leaders agreed on the outcome of these talks," the office of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said in a statement.
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