Eurogroup chief to meet Tsipras in Greece Friday

(BRUSSELS) - The head of the eurozone finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, will visit Athens on Friday for talks with Greece's new anti-austerity Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, his spokeswoman said.

The purpose of the meeting "is mainly getting to know each other," Dijsselbloem's spokeswoman told AFP on Tuesday, adding that the afternoon meeting would also include the new Greek finance minister.

Tsipras, the leader of the Syriza leftist party, has raised fears of a possible Greek exit from the single currency area by vowing to reduce the huge debt payments Greece has to make following its international bailouts.

Tsipras is set to unveil his anti-austerity coalition government later Tuesday including the key post of finance minister. The favourite for the post is Yannis Varoufakis, an outspoken political economist who holds dual Greek and Australian nationality.

Following two EU-IMF bailouts worth 240 billion euros ($269 billion), Greece's debt currently stands at a colossal 177 percent of gross domestic product, a level that most analysts believe is unsustainable.

Dijsselbloem -- the Dutch finance minister who currently chairs the Eurogroup of his colleagues from the 19-country eurozone -- warned Greece on Monday that its place was at risk if Tsipras failed to meet the country's austerity and debt commitments.

But after a Eurogroup meeting on Monday, Dijsselbloem said he "took note" of Tsipras's ambition to erase part of Greece's huge debt, saying that it was Greece's "ambition to remain in the eurozone, that's the basis on which we'll work."

Dijsselbloem added that he had already had a 15-minute conversation with Varoufakis but did not discuss specific ways of resolving Greece's debt problem.

The first priority for Athens and its EU partners is to negotiate the end of its current bailout programme that was set to end December 31, but was extended two months.

At issue is the bailout's fifth and final review, which would bring the payout of the last 1.8 billion euro instalment of the money that Athens has been loaned since 2010.