Greek Party Leaders Prepare For Crucial Debt Talks

DEMETRIS NELLAS

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece failed to finalize terms for a crucial euro130 billion bailout Thursday, but Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos headed to Brussels to meet top EU officials, hoping to rescue the agreement and stave off bankruptcy.

The Athens talks stalled after leaders of the three parties backing Greece's coalition government approved sweeping new austerity measures but failed to agree to creditors' demands to make euro300 million ($398 million) in pension cuts.

Venizelos issued a dramatic plea to the coalition leaders to swiftly resolve their differences, warning that Greece's "survival over the coming years" depends on bailout and a related debt-relief agreement with private creditors.

"It will determine whether the country remains in the eurozone or whether its place in Europe will be endangered," he said.

"There is no room for any other expediency: we must look Greeks in the eye, look at the national interest and the interest of our children."

Major Asian stock markets fell, with sentiment hit by the snag in Greece's debt talks and a rebound in Chinese inflation. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.2 percent.

Venizelos' meeting with finance ministers from the 16 other nations that use the euro is expected to start at 1700 GMT.

Debt inspectors from the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — known as the troika — held talks for five hours through the night with Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, Venizelos and Labor Minister Giorgos Koutroumanis. But they failed to resolve the latest sticking point: a demand for substantial cuts in supplementary pensions.

The issue that has threatened to derail the talks concerns cuts of about euro300 million that must be made so Greece can reach its fiscal targets for 2012. At stake is the euro130 billion bailout that will stave off Greece's bankruptcy.