ATHENS: Greece is working to make a emergency eurozone summit on Monday a "success," the government said, as time runs out for Athens and its creditors to reach a deal on its international bailout and avoid default.
"We hope that the final negotiations take place at Europe's highest political level and we are working toward the success of this summit," Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's office said in a statement on Friday.
EU President Donald Tusk called an emergency summit of the leaders of the 19 eurozone countries on Monday in Brussels after finance ministers on Thursday failed to break the five-month-old deadlock between the anti-austerity government in Athens and its EU-IMF creditors.
Greece has until the end of June to agree a reform deal in order to secure the remaining portion of its multi-billion-euro bailout, which it needs to avoid defaulting on a 1.6-billion-euro IMF debt payment.
Analysts have long warned that a default may set off a chain of events leading to a so-called Grexit -- Greece leaving the eurozone.
On Wednesday the Greek central bank warned that the cash-strapped country could crash out of the eurozone and even the European Union if it failed to reach a bailout deal with international creditors.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was elected in January on a promise to end five years of austerity under two international bailouts since 2010, which Athens took to repay debts incurred by years of overspending including from hosting the 2004 Athens Olympics.
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