Brussels: German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said he had little hopes of reaching a long sought-after debt deal with Greece at a meeting of his eurozone counterparts on Wednesday.
"I do not want to speculate now, however the preparations are not at a level which make me optimistic that we will have a result today," Schaeuble said as he arrived for a meeting of finance ministers from the 19-member single currency bloc, the third in less than a week.
"My feeling is that we did not advance much more than on Monday. But we are just going to start, let`s see," the austerity pushing minister added, referring to the previous round of talks that ended with no deal.
Finnish Finance Minister Alexander Stubb said he shared the same doubts of any breakthrough in the Wednesday talks, which are aimed at unlocking urgently needed bailout cash for Athens in return for reforms.
"I would be very positively surprised if we get a deal tonight. We have not seen a concrete proposal," Stubb said.
"These are not decisions we take lightly and we have to work them through first," Stubb added.
The ministers were meeting after Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras held over six hours of talks also in Brussels with the heads of his country`s creditors: the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank.
"We are making progress. We are not there yet so we will basically report to ministers and get further guidance how to move forward," said Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commission vice-president for the euro, who took part in creditor talks.
Austrian Finance Minister Hans Joerg Schelling warned he though matters were worse than in previous days.
"In principle, (I am) less optimistic than on Monday... but maybe we will have a wonderful surprise" with new proposals, Schelling said.
