Greece and its creditors moved closer to the brink on Wednesday with the leaders of Germany, France and the European Commission holding back planned meetings with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to press for more concessions from the Greek side.
Athens said it was waiting for the lenders to respond to ideas it put forward on Monday. Euro-zone officials said those proposals were inadequate to plug holes in the Greek budget and dodged key reforms meant to make the economy more competitive.
Without a deal to unlock more aid money by the end of this month, Greece is heading for a default, with severe consequences for its economy and the risk of sliding out of the euro area.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she and French President Francois Hollande were willing to meet Tsipras, if he requested it, on the sidelines of an EU-Latin America summit in Brussels, which all three are attending, but no appointment had been made so far.
The European Commission said its chief, Jean-Claude Juncker, who accused Tsipras on Sunday of misrepresenting the creditors' proposals and misleading his parliament, had no plans as yet to meet the Greek premier either.
Merkel and Tsipras shook hands, smiled and made small talk just before the leaders sat down for the first summit session.
Tsipras did have a private meeting with the president of the European Council, summit chairman Donald Tusk, to discuss the state of the unfinished debt negotiations.
A Greek government official said there had been no reply to the proposal and two annexes that Athens submitted on Monday. Schinas said
EU Economics Commissioner Pierre Moscovici had told Greek representatives on Tuesday that the documents "do not reflect the state of discussions".
Tsipras has denounced creditors' demands to scrap an income top-up for the poorest pensioners and to refrain from unilateral moves to reintroduce collective bargaining or raise the minimum wage - policies that are anathema for his leftist Syriza party.
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