NICOSIA: Cyprus's bid to avert financial collapse will go down to the wire after the island said it would hold a crucial sitting of parliament only after finance ministers of the 17-nation euro zone meet on Sunday.
Cyprus faces a Monday deadline to clinch a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout from the European Union or the European Central Bank sauys it will cut off emergency funding to the country's stricken banks, spelling certain collapse and potentially pushing the island out of Europe's single currency.
Lawmakers are expected to debate a possible levy on big depositors in Cypriot banks to help secure the 5.8 billion euros demanded by the European Union before it gives the nod to the bailout.
But with euro zone finance ministers due to meet on Sunday afternoon, a senior lawmaker in Nicosia told Reuters the island's tiny legislature would wait until after the Brussels meeting to hold its debate.
"We will meet after the Eurogroup meeting," the lawmaker, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters. "I don't know when."
A government official, who also declined to be named, said Cypriot officials were to hold talks with representatives from the so-called 'troika' of lenders the EU, ECB and International Monetary Fund - on Saturday morning.
The official said President Nicos Anastasiades, barely a month in office and wrestling with Cyprus's worst crisis since an invasion by Turkish forces in 1974 split the country in two, may head to Brussels on Saturday depending on the outcome of the troika talks, though formal meetings are not expected until Sunday.
Racing to placate its European partners, Cypriot lawmakers voted in a late-night session on Friday to nationalise state pensions and split failing lenders into good and bad banks.
They also gave the government powers to impose capital controls on banks, anticipating a flood of money from the island when banks are due to reopen on Tuesday after more than a week of lockdown.
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