Athens vows to 'intensify' efforts to reach deal with creditors

Athens: The Greek government on Thursday said it would "intensify" efforts to resolve differences with its EU-IMF creditors to reach a deal that would give the country desperately needed bailout funds.

"The Greek delegation, as agreed, is ready to intensify its negotiations" to reach an accord, "including in the next 24 hours" and will "continue to work on the unresolved questions", in particular regarding the budget and debt, said government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis.

The spokesman`s comments appeared to hold out the possibility of new discussions, at the technical or political level, but no new negotiations have been scheduled after eleventh-hour talks in Brussels between Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker broke up without reaching a deal on reforms in exchange for bailout cash.

The International Monetary Fund late Thursday said an agreement remained "well 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.

The IMF is the most hardline of Greece`s three bailout monitors -- the others being the European Commission and European Central Bank -- who have demanded tough reforms in exchange for unlocking the remaining 7.2 billion euros ($8.1 billion) of its 240-billion-euro rescue package.

Without fresh external funding when the bailout expires on June 30, cash-strapped Greece is set to default on its debts, meaning it could crash out of the eurozone despite benefitting from two international bailouts since 2010.