Summit on Greek debt breaks up without deal due Tuesday

BRUSSELS – The bitter standoff between Greece and its international creditors was extended into the weekend, just days before Athens has to meet a crucial debt deadline which could decide whether it goes bankrupt and gets kicked out of the euro currency club.

A key meeting of eurozone finance ministers broke up without agreement on Greece’s rescue package Thursday, intensifying doubts about whether Athens can pay the International Monetary Fund a debt worth $1.8 billion on Tuesday.

An agreement on a drastic Greek tax and austerity reform package is necessary for creditors to unfreeze $8.1 billion in bailout money that would get Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras off the hook.

“European history is full of disagreements, negotiations and at the end, compromises,” Tsipras said. “So, after the comprehensive Greek proposals, I am confident that we will reach a compromise.”

Lower-level negotiations will continue and a new meeting of eurozone finance ministers is tentatively scheduled Saturday.

The breakup of the eurozone meeting was the latest in a series of negotiating roadblocks, and a major setback since there had been hopes to reach a deal in time to approve it at a summit later Thursday.

The blockage happened after leaders from the IMF, the European Central Bank and the European Commission raised the stakes by putting forward their joint position on the reforms they would accept to offer Greece a financial lifeline. But Greece, objecting to what it saw as outside interference, was still not on board.

Representatives from almost every Greek party were in Brussels, following developments blow by blow, to see whether they would be able to back any new deal in the Greek parliament, where a vote must pass by Monday.

A default on its debts could force Greece out of the eurozone, which would be hugely painful for the country.