Greece said on Friday it was moving swiftly to meet creditors' demands for a detailed economic reform plan after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras assured euro-zone leaders his leftist-led coalition would speed up work to avert bankruptcy.
After two months of mounting frustration on both sides since Tsipras was elected with a mandate to end years of austerity, he held three hours of late night talks to try to break an impasse that risks sending Athens stumbling of the euro-zone.
But while a joint statement by the EU institutions spoke of a "spirit of mutual trust" and Tsipras said he left feeling more optimistic, German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed no money would be released before Athens implements budget measures and other reforms that it has so far been reluctant to accept.
The risk of a continued standoff, exactly a month after Greece secured a last-gasp four-month extension of a bailout by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, was highlighted by different descriptions by Tsipras and Merkel about what reforms Athens would need to launch.
But Merkel, facing mounting resistance in Europe's richest state to continued lending to keep an erratic partner in the common currency area, insisted that only the full completion of already approved measures would satisfy the creditors.
Tsipras will make a much anticipated visit to Merkel in Berlin on Monday. EU officials said that if Greece did come up with a convincing plan to get its debts under control, euro-zone finance ministers could meet soon to release at least some funds to help it meet pressing commitments in the coming weeks.
