Greek coalition agrees on 'main points' of cuts

(ATHENS) - Greece's three-party coalition government agreed Thursday on the "main points" of a 13.5-billion-euro ($17.4 billion) austerity package, which is to be presented at a euro working group in Brussels.

The package is tied to the release of a vital 31.5-billion-euro instalment from a massive bailout deal by the country's international creditors, that has been keeping Greek economy alive.

"We have agreed on the main points," Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said after the end of the Greek political leaders's Thursday meeting.

He added that the agreement of the so-called 'troika' of auditors representing Greece's EU, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank creditors, as well as that of EU peers, was necessary.

"We agreed on the main points, but there are issues that are still pending," said Fotis Kouvelis, leader of the government's junior partner Democratic Left.

Socialist partner Evangelos Venizelos said that Greece had to secure a delay for the implementation of the fiscal adjustment programme before the package was presented to parliament for a vote.

"It is very important for the measures to be carried out until 2016," Venizelos said in a televised address.

"The main points have to become more specialised and the criterion in order to do that is the time (we will have) for the implementation (of the programme)," he added.

"We have to embark on an intense political negotiation at a high level," he said, adding that "time is running against us."

The head of Greece's financial experts team, Panos Tsakloglou, will present the agreed measures at a euro working group meeting taking place in Brussels late on Thursday and on Friday which the troika will attend, a finance ministry source told AFP.

According to the ministry, the package includes 11.5 billion euros in state spending cuts and two billion euros in additional tax revenue, while the creditors have given the government a week to finalise the cuts.

The troika is expected to return to Athens by early next week and the government hopes to have the package ready before a meeting by eurozone finance ministers on October 8.

Poul Thomsen, from the IMF, is scheduled to return to the Greek capital on Sunday, the organisation confirmed on Thursday.

Athens desperately needs the instalment from the rescue loans to pay state salaries and pensions, recapitalise Greek banks hit by a state debt rollover and repay more than six billion euros owed to private contractors.

Samaras' allies have been trying to mitigate the cuts, pointing to mounting anger in Greece after two prior years of austerity.

Doctors, lawyers, teachers and even state security staff have staged strikes and walkouts this month against the new measures.

On Wednesday, police clashed with masked youths in Athens during a general strike and demonstrations that drew some 34,000 people to the city centre.

Another 18,000 people protested in the northern city of Thessaloniki according to police.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, leader of the main opposition Alexis Tsipras asked for a one-off international conference to write off Greek debt, based on the 1953 London deal on German war reparations, during a press conference at the European Parliament in Brussels.