Germany's Schaueble plays down positive reports from Athens

(DRESDEN) - German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble sought to play down Friday assertions by Athens that Greece is on the verge of reaching a deal with its creditors.

"The positive reports out of Athens don't fully reflect the state of talks," Schaeuble said at the close of a meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers and central bank governors in Dresden

After four months of negotiating to unlock some 7.2 billion euros ($7.9 billion) in bailout cash with creditors -- the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Bank, Athens' coffers are near empty.

The Greek government has sent mixed signals about how close the two sides are to a deal. On the one hand it has suggested that an agreement could be reached by Sunday.

But Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis told VimaFM radio on Friday that while a deal was close, under a February agreement "the country's aid programme was prolonged until June 30, thus that is the date by which we need to arrive at a deal."

If Varoufakis sees the end of June as the ultimate deadline for a deal, this would offer Athens and its creditors a longer timeframe to conclude their talks than next week, when Greek officials have said they may not have enough money to make a repayment to the IMF.