BRUSSELS: Eurozone finance ministers on Saturday were set to give their verdict on Greece's last-chance bid for another bailout to keep its economy afloat and prevent its exit from the single European currency.
IMF chief Christine Lagarde said she hoped for "a lot of progress" after the Greek parliament backed leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's new reform plan, aiming at a rescue worth more than 80 billion euros ($89 billion).
But austerity-minded Germany holds the keys to the outcome, and a EU leader and two other sources gave no more than a 50-50 chance that a make-or-break European summit Sunday would approve a deal.
Hardliners Berlin and the Baltic states are exasperated with Greece's radical Syriza government, blaming it for more than five months of bitter negotiations in which trust has been the biggest casualty.
Finance ministers from the 19-country eurozone were to meet in Brussels at 1300 GMT Saturday to review Greece's proposals for market-oriented reforms in exchange for its third bailout since 2010.
EU economic affairs commissioner Pierre Moscovici said that "rapidly" putting reforms in action was "key to getting a programme, to be able to tackle the debt."
Greece has repeatedly called for efforts to ease a crushing debt burden -- amounting to nearly 180 percent of the country's yearly economic output -- to be part of any deal.
Tsipras's package was approved by parliament in Athens in the early hours of Saturday, with the backing of 251 out of 300 deputies.
It includes plans for a pensions overhaul, tax hikes and privatisations.
The terms are similar to those previously offered by creditors, which had been angrily dismissed by Tsipras as humiliating for Greece and then overwhelmingly rejected by voters in a snap referendum.
Although Greek voters last Sunday roundly voted "No" to accepting tough austerity terms for a bailout that expired June 30, they are alarmed at capital controls that have closed banks and rationed cash at ATMs.
Queueing Saturday at an ATM in the capital Athens, Vassilis Papoutsoglou, 52, said: "We still don't know what will happen tomorrow. Can we expect something better, or is it Armageddon?"
"When I go to the supermarket they don't have many foods, even milk for the baby, the pharmacies don't have any more (medicine)," said Marilena Mouzaki, 35, who was walking with her 11-month old son.
The Greek government hoped the vote would give it an emphatic mandate to continue the talks with the creditors.
But it also revealed the depth of opposition to fresh austerity.
Three senior government figures were among 10 deputies who abstained or voted against and several others from the ruling Syriza party stayed away, prompting commentators to predict a government shake-up lay ahead.
Tsipras told parliament it was a "national duty to keep our people alive... we will succeed not only in staying in Europe but in living as equal peers with dignity and pride."
The deal was "marginally better" than proposals put forward by the creditors last month which did not ease Greece's 320-billion-euro mountain of debt, said Tsipras.
An EU source in Brussels said Athens' latest proposals were "positive" enough to form the basis of a new support package.
But Athens's biggest creditor, Berlin, which has opposed parallel appeals for debt relief, has remained tight-lipped and said the outcome of Saturday's talks was "completely open."
President Dalia Grybauskaite of Lithuania, which joined the euro only six months ago, on Friday put the chances of a deal by Sunday's summit at 50-50, saying Athens' proposals are based on "outdated information" and "will have to be seriously corrected."
EU sources who asked not to be named also put the probability of a deal at no more 50-50.
Despite the odds, French President Francois Hollande called the Greek proposals "serious and credible" while cautioning "nothing is decided yet". Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said he was "more optimistic."
If approved, Greece could receive between 74 billion and 82 billion euros from its EU-IMF creditors, including 16 billion euros from the International Monetary Fund that is part of an old programme due to expire next March, sources close to the negotiations said.
Hardline eurozone nations say that, after two bailouts over the past five years totalling 240 billion euros, and 107 billion euros in debt forgiveness in 2012, Greece is looking like a money pit.
EU President Donald Tusk has said the 28-nation summit he will host in Brussels Sunday is a "last chance" for Greece and the EU to seal a deal.
And even if the leaders agree a deal, at least eight parliaments will have to weigh in, with Germany's Bundestag having to vote twice.
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