G7 finance ministers in phone conference on Greek crisis

LUXEMBOURG: G7 finance ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States are to hold a telephone conference late Sunday to discuss the Greek debt crisis, a diplomatic source told AFP.

"A telephone conference of ministers of the G7 countries is scheduled tonight," the source, from a G7 country, said.

European finance chiefs launched crunch talks Sunday on a second bailout in a year for Greece, where they are expected to approve emergency cashflow aid as fears rise of domino effect across the eurozone.

As a reshuffled Greek government vowed to deliver on new promises of austerity ahead of a confidence vote in parliament, eurozone partners readied to greenlight part of a fifth, 12-billion-euro tranche of loans under last year's 110-billion-euro ($156 billion) bailout due early in July.

The delivery of the monies had been placed in doubt by insufficient progress towards debt reduction in Athens, amid a growing wave of protest in the Greek capital that threatened Prime Minister George Papandreou.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011