Brussels: Greece asked for a new international bailout on Wednesday as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said he was confident debt-stricken Athens could meet a weekend debt deal deadline to stay in the euro.
The Greek request for what would be its third debt rescue from the eurozone`s bailout fund was the first step demanded by exasperated leaders of the single currency union at an emergency meeting in Brussels late Tuesday.
Athens must now table a complete reform plan by Thursday night ahead of a full EU summit on Sunday, which the eurozone leaders warned was the "final deadline" to reach a deal and save Greece from bankruptcy.
Greek banks remain closed for a second week with ATM withdrawals limited to 60 euros a day, amid fears that the economy is headed towards collapse and possible "Grexit".
Leftist leader Tsipras was greeted by a mixture of boos and cheers as he gave a speech to the European Parliament on Wednesday, in which he defended his decision to hold a bailout referendum last Sunday.
"I am confident that in the next two or three days we will be able to meet the obligations in the best interests of Greece and also the eurozone," Tsipras told MEPs in Strasbourg.
"Our proposals for financing our obligations and restructuring our debt will not burden European taxpayers."Shortly after Tsipras spoke, a spokesman for the European Stability Mechanism, the bailout fund set up during the eurozone debt crisis, confirmed to AFP that it had "received the Greek request."
The Greek government said on Tuesday that its revised bailout request would "take into account" the concerns of creditors who have demanded more cuts to pensions and the introduction of higher taxes.
Greece has had two previous international bailouts worth 240 billion euros, the last of which expired on June 30 when Athens also failed to make a huge International Monetary Fund debt repayment.
The price of those loans was five years of harsh austerity measures, and in Sunday`s Greek referendum voters overwhelmingly rejected more of the same offered by international creditors.
The result sent a shocked Europe scrambling for a solution to keep Greece in the euro, but there was further alarm when Tsipras and his new finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos turned up in Brussels on Tuesday without any formal debt plan.
EU President Donald Tusk warned the European Parliament ahead of the speech by Tsipras that failure to reach a deal "may lead to the bankruptcy of Greece" and cause geopolitical problems for Europe.
Tusk had stressed "loud and clear" on Tuesday night after the summit that "the final deadline ends this week".
The urgency of the situation was underlined by the head of France`s central bank, Christian Noyer, who said Wednesday he feared Greece could descend into "chaos" unless a deal was struck this week.
"The Greek economy is on the edge of catastrophe. A deal absolutely must be found on Sunday because it will be too late after that and the consequences will be serious," he told French radio, adding that "there could be riots... and chaos in the country."
Noyer said it was "impossible" to re-open the banks while confidence was so low because there would be an "immediate run" on deposits.
The European Central Bank has been providing emergency liquidity to keep Greek banks from collapsing, but further support will depend on political developments in Brussels and Athens.
A European banking source said that "exasperation and impatience are mounting in the council of governors of the European Central Bank in the face of the attitude of the Greek government."
On Tuesday, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker warned "we have a `Grexit` scenario prepared in detail" if no deal is reached, although he insisted he wanted Athens to stay in the single currency.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel meanwhile insisted that writing off any part of Greece`s 320-billion-euro ($350-billion) debt mountain was out of the question.
Fear continued to grip world financial markets, with Asian shares plunging on Wednesday morning and the euro hitting a five-week low of $1.0916 in New York trade on Tuesday.
