ATHENS, June 23: Greece's new government on Saturday said it wanted to review several austerity measures enacted for rescue loans and bargain for a two-year fiscal adjustment extension as it prepared for an EU-IMF audit.

A policy document released by the conservative-led coalition said efforts to “revise” Greece's EU-IMF bailout deal in talks with creditors starting on Monday include “the extension of the fiscal adjustment by at least two years”, to 2016.

The aim would be to meet fiscal goals “without further cuts to salaries, pensions and public investment” and new taxes, it said, announcing a freeze on further civil-service layoffs, sales-tax cuts and longer unemployment benefits.

“The aim is to avoid layoffs of permanent staff, but to economise a serious amount through non-salary operational costs and less bureaucracy,” the three-party coalition document said.

Under its loan agreement, Greece had promised to reduce the state payroll by 150,000 civil servants by 2015, including 15,000 this year.

The new government said it also wanted to review minimum-wage cuts and measures taken earlier this year to facilitate private-sector layoffs, arguing that collective labour agreements would “return to the level defined by European social law” and what Europeans have agreed on.

It said employers and unions should be allowed to set the private-sector minimum wage, which was cut by 22 per cent to 586 euros ($736) in February amid additional austerity measures taken to clinch a new rescue deal.

The blueprint is designed to reduce anger in Greece towards the austerity policies of the EU-IMF loan agreement, which are deemed to have deepened a recession now continuing for a fifth year.

Over a quarter of Greece's workforce — 1.12 million — are jobless according to official figures.—AFP