Pressure mounts on Greece over bail-out

Financial Times
February 6, 2012

French President Nicolas Sarkozy (R) gives a press conference with German chancellor Angela Merkel

The leaders of France and Germany stepped up the pressure on Greece on Monday to accept the terms of a new €130bn bail-out, saying there would be no further rescue unless all Greek political parties signed up to the deal.

Leaders of the three political parties in Greece’s national unity government have postponed a planned meeting to agree reforms until Tuesday, the prime minister’s office said.

A government official said more last-minute work needed to be done on the text of the 50-page medium-term fiscal programme that the three political leaders have to approve before the eurogroup meeting.

“It’s not a matter of disagreements but there’s some fine-tuning that still has to be done” the official said, adding that the delay would give the political leaders more time to study details of the document.

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