Berlin: Negotiations between debt-wracked Greece and its creditors have recently seen "a bit more momentum" than previously, the IMF`s representative in Europe told a German newspaper Monday.
"For a few days, there`s been a bit more momentum in the negotiations between the three institutions and the Greek government," Poul Thomsen said in an interview with Handelsblatt business daily, referring to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Union and European Central Bank.
"That`s a good development and is cause for hope," he said, adding however that much work remained to be done.
"We are making progress, but we are far from the goal. The negotiations must clearly have more momentum if a timely agreement is to succeed," he warned.
A German finance ministry spokeswoman later said the "dialogue process" needed to be sharply stepped up, saying the ball was in Athens` court.
Greece, which is seeking the release of another 7.2 billion euros ($7.8 billion) in bailout funds, was told at weekend IMF-World bank meetings that it needed to urgently deliver a detailed fiscal and debt plan to its official lenders.
