Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's allies are pushing for two more years to implement unpopular austerity cuts before they sign off on them, sources close to the parties said on Monday, potentially delaying a deal on the savings demanded by lenders, Reuters reported. The three parties in Samaras's coalition have agreed on the bulk of the nearly 12 billion euros in cuts that Greece must produce to satisfy inspectors from the European Union and International Monetary Fund bailing out the nation.

European policymakers are working on "last chance" options to bring Greece's debts down and keep it in the euro zone, with the ECB and national central banks looking at taking significant losses on the value of their bond holdings, officials said. Private creditors have already suffered big writedowns on their Greek bonds under a second bailout for Athens sealed in February, but this was not enough to put the country back on the path to solvency and a further restructuring is on the cards.

Political leaders in Greece have agreed on most of the austerity measures demanded by its creditors and are now eyeing pension and wage cuts to find the final 1.5 billion euros of savings still needed, a source close to the talks said on Sunday, Reuters reported. Greece must find savings worth 11.5 billion euros for 2013 and 2014 to satisfy its increasingly impatient lenders, who are currently visiting Athens to evaluate the country's progress in complying with the terms of its latest bailout.

Greece may need a second debt restructuring to stay in the euro, a leading political ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel said. The comments by Norbert Barthle, the Christian Democratic Union’s parliamentary budget spokesman, are the first indication by a senior German official that additional help for Greece may be forthcoming to avert the market turmoil that would be triggered by its exit from the 17-nation currency region, Bloomberg reported. “We should try to keep Greece in the euro zone,” Barthle said by phone today.

Greece is unlikely to be able to pay what it owes and further debt restructuring is likely to be necessary, three EU officials said on Tuesday, a cost that would have to fall on the European Central Bank and euro zone governments. The officials said that twice bailed-out Greece would be found to be way off track by EU and International Monetary Fund officials who have been assessing the country.

Greece is in a "Great Depression" similar to the American one in the 1930s, the country's prime minister Antonis Samaras has told former US president Bill Clinton, the Irish Times reported. Mr Samaras was speaking before a team of Greece's international lenders arrive in Athens to push for further cuts needed for the debt-laden country to qualify for further rescue payments and avoid a chaotic default.

The International Monetary Fund's mission chief for Greece, Poul Thomsen, walked grim-faced into his first meeting with newly elected Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on July 5 wearing a black tie looking as if he was going to a funeral. Whether he was making a point or not, the first meet-and-greet visit by Greece's exasperated international lenders with the new government was blunt, both sides told Reuters.

Greek political leaders have identified two-thirds of the spending cuts demanded by international creditors as a condition for resuming loan disbursements, but they sounded a warning over rising poverty levels as the country’s five-year recession continues unabated, the Financial Times reported.

Greece is seeking extra money from its international creditors to cover a coming bond redemption in late August, as a deeper-than-expected recession drives the country's fiscal-consolidation program off course for 2012, The Wall Street Journal reported. With Athens hoping to avoid introducing additional cutbacks for this year, which would further weigh down economic activity, the government is putting together a plan to save €11.5 billion ($14 billion) over the next two years in line with demands from international creditors.

Greece’s coalition government has stripped the bosses of the lossmaking state electricity producer of a monthly €3,500 allowance paid on top of their salaries, in a move signalling their intention to slash wasteful spending in the public sector, the Financial Times reported. The “family” allowances, deemed illegal in a recent high court ruling, have highlighted continuing public sector resistance to change, despite Greece’s economic situation. Affected in this case were Arthuros Zervos, the chief executive of Public Power Corporation, and Costas Theios, his deputy.