Eurozone Greece talks called off

A meeting of the finance chiefs of the 17 eurozone countries to discuss Greece’s second multibillion bailout planned for Wednesday has been called off after Athens failed to deliver on several demands made by its partners in the currency union.

The last-minute cancellation of the meeting – which was expected to give the green light for a key debt relief deal with private creditors linked to the bailout – shows the eurozone wants much tougher guarantees now from Athens before giving it an extra 130 billion euro (£108 billion) in rescue loans, on top of 110 billion euro (£92 billion) granted in 2010.