ATHENS, July 26: Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras met European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Thursday as his political allies considered 11.6 billion euros in spending cuts.

Government officials are hoping for a message of support from Barroso, who is on his first visit to Athens in three years, at a time when speculation is rife that Greece may be forced to crash out of the eurozone.

Samaras was elected in June after promising to soften an austerity drive deemed to have accelerated a five-year recession in crisis-hit Greece.

But Greece, which has a multi-billion loan agreement running with the EU, the IMF and the European Central Bank, has been told by its creditors to stick with reforms if it wants to maintain its fund lifeline.

The finance ministry on Thursday said the spending cuts, reportedly to come largely from pensions, health care and benefits, are designed to help Greece negotiate more time to overhaul its spending to cope with a deep recession.

“It's a weapon to request a two-year extension,” the official said after talks between Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras and senior EU-IMF auditors.

Greece’s coalition leaders are to resume talks on the cuts on Monday.

The audit report, expected to be made public at the end of August or early September, will determine whether Greece will draw 31.5 billion euros from its EU-IMF loan programme to keep the economy afloat.

The socialists and moderate leftists in Samaras' conservative-led coalition on Thursday said they acknowledged the country's dire economic straits but stressed that Greeks had already made major sacrifices.

“Our ultimate fiscal target can be achieved without fuelling recession and unemployment. Our international partners must understand this,” said socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos.

“Our partners must help us, by understanding the political, social and economic condition in Greece,” said Venizelos, who warned against making a “sacrificial victim” out of Greece.

“Those who believe this are very much mistaken. (Such a) sacrifice would be suicide for the eurozone,” he said.—AFP