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 Greece's new government has been in talks with its European Union
and International Monetary Fund lenders over the past four months
about the release of around 7.2 billion euros ($8.1 billion) in aid.
Asked on Greek TV when Athens would reach the cash-for-reform deal,
Labour Minister Panos Skourletis said: "De facto, in the coming
days."
"There's a deadline, which is June 5," he said - the date on which
Greece's next repayment of a loan to the IMF falls due. "We all know
that if there is no solution, let's say until then, in relation to
funding, things will be difficult.
Greece faces payments of about 1.5 billion euros to the IMF next
month. It made its last repayment of about 750 million euros to the
IMF last week by emptying a holding account at the Fund.
Speaking on a late-night talk show on Monday, Finance Minister Yanis
Varoufakis said the government hopes it can both make debt
repayments and pay wages and pensions in June, but if it has to
choose, it will choose the latter.
 The Greek government took power in January promising to end years of
EU/IMF-imposed austerity that worsened a deep recession and pushed
up unemployment and poverty. Not accepting cuts to pensions and
wages is one of its so-called red lines.
The creditors, on the other hand, have been demanding Greece
implement reforms, including pension cuts and labor market
liberalization. Talks on the conflict have been deadlocked.
They two sides are now getting closer to an understanding, the EU's
monetary affairs chief, Pierre Moscovici, said on Monday . But the
European Commission denied a report in a Greek newspaper the
commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, had made a new, more
lenient proposal.
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Most Greeks are unhappy with their government's negotiating
strategy, a poll published late on Monday found.
According to the survey carried out on May 13-15 by the University
of Macedonia, 41 percent of Greeks believe the governments
negotiating strategy "is not stable and is therefore sometimes right
and sometimes wrong." Thirty-five percent believed it was right,
compared to 72 percent in February.
As many as 61 percent believe the government should water down its
pre-election pledges given the circumstances, the poll said,
compared with 35 percent who want them seen through.
($1 = 0.8864 euros)
(This version of the story corrects the finance minister's name in
paragraph six.)
(Reporting by Karolina Tagaris and Angeliki Koutantou)
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