Discussions on deeper spending cuts between Greece and its international lenders will resume on Tuesday as the first round of talks on a new bailout tranche resulted in impasse, the Greek Finance Ministry said.
Greece's Finance Minister Evangelos Venizalos and the so-called Troika - the European Central Bank, the European Commission, and the International Monetary Fund - held a teleconference on Monday, which Greece called "productive and substantive."
In the first eight months of the year, Greece's budget deficit have overshot its 2011 target of 7.5 percent of gross domestic product and the European Union and the IMF have warned they may not disburse the next 8 billion euro tranche from a 110 billion euro bailout if Athens did not stabilize its budget shortfall.
Last week the government promised to increase property taxes to raise some 2 billion euros and meet the 2011 budget deficit target, but the move did not satisfy the creditors.
The IMF demanded on Monday that the Greek authorities should take additional steps, including better tax collection and deeper spending cuts, to reduce budget deficit.
Without another tranche of bailout support, Greece will default on its debt in mid-October.
