EU seeks tighter scrutiny of Greek spending

European finance ministers insisted on much tighter oversight of Greece's spending and austerity efforts, despite assurances that Athens would go ahead with promised cuts and reforms to secure a €130bn bailout.

Following a three and a half-hour conference call between the finance chiefs of the 17 eurozone countries, the ministers welcomed the debt-ridden nation's declaration that it had identified another €325m in cuts on top of the axing of thousands of public workers and other wage and pension cuts.