Greece's leftist prime minister said on Friday he was certain euro-zone finance ministers would accept his government's request for an extended loan deal, but Germany demanded "significant improvements" in reform commitments.
After long preliminary talks among Greek, euro-zone and International Monetary Fund officials in Brussels, the chairman of the 19-nation Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said there was "reason for some optimism" but the search for agreement remained very difficult.
With Greece's EU/IMF bailout program due to expire in little more than a week, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras voiced confidence of an agreement despite the objections to the request made in a letter to Dijsselbloem.
A Greek official said Tsipras had asked European Council President Donald Tusk to convene an emergency European Union summit on Sunday if the ministers failed to reach an agreement.
A report by German magazine Der Spiegel that the European Central Bank was making contingency plans for a possible Greek exit from the currency area if the talks fail, on which the ECB declined comment, highlighted the high stakes.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking after talks in Paris, said all EU partners wanted to keep Greece in the euro but added: "There is a need for significant improvements in the substance of what is being discussed so that we can vote on it in the German Bundestag, for example next week."
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