BRUSSELS: Greece’s creditors piled pressure on cash-strapped Athens on Thursday as the IMF pulled its team out of talks and the EU warned Athens to stop gambling with the possibility of default and a messy exit from the eurozone.

The International Monetary Fund said an agreement remained far-off after a five-month stalemate with Greece’s anti-austerity government, which faces being unable to pay huge debts at the end of the month.

Eleventh-hour talks in Brussels between Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker meanwhile broke up without reaching a deal on reforms in exchange for bailout cash.

“There are still major differences between us in most key areas,” IMF spokesman Gerry Rice told reporters in Washington. “There has been no progress in narrowing these differences recently. Thus we are well away from an agreement.”

The fund said its Greek talks team had returned to Washington from Brussels and that the “ball is very much in Greece’s court right now” — although it added that “the IMF never leaves the table and remains engaged.”

It said the key disagreements were on pensions, taxes and financing.

CRISIS GOING TO THE WIRE: EU president Donald Tusk issued an unprecedented warning to Tsipras, telling the Greek government to stop “gambling” and saying the Eurogroup meeting would be “really crucial” and “decisive”.

“There is no more time for gambling. The day is coming, I am afraid, that someone says the game is over,” he told a press conference.

Thursday’s Tsipras-Juncker talks, the second set in as many days and the third in a week, ended almost exactly as the IMF issued its statement, with both sides saying there was still no deal.

The EU said Juncker had explained to the Greek leader Tsipras “a possible process with the three institutions that would still allow finding mutually acceptable solutions in time” — but admitted there was no agreement.

PROTESTS IN ATHENS: Tsipras, whose radical left Syriza party won elections in January with a promise to end five years of austerity, has refused to back down on the reforms demanded by Greece’s creditors.

Fresh protests erupted in Athens as Communist trade union protesters occupied the finance ministry in the landmark Syntagma Square, hauled down the EU flag and draped a huge banner over the building.

“We have bled too much, we have paid, stop the new measures,” said the banner.

Unions called for further protests later Thursday against a government “that no longer understands the real need of workers,” a statement said.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2015

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