EU's Tusk urges creditors to give Greece debt relief

[LUXEMBOURG] EU President Donald Tusk said Greece's creditors must make a "realistic" proposal for managing the country's huge debt, as Athens faces a midnight deadline to submit reform plans for an international bailout.

"I just spoke with the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. I hope that today we will receive concrete and realistic proposals of reforms from Athens," Mr Tusk told a joint press conference with Luxembourg premier Xavier Bettel.

"If this happens we will also need a parallel proposal from the creditors. The realistic proposal from Greece will have to be matched by an equally realistic proposal on debt sustainability from the creditors," Mr Tusk added.

"Only then will we have a win-win situation."

Leftist premier Mr Tsipras has called for a reduction of Greece's 320-billion-euro ($350-billion) debt mountain to be part of any deal for a new international bailout, a call backed by the International Monetary Fund.

But Germany and many other eurozone nations reject any move to write off Greek debts, especially after Greeks in a referendum last weekend backed Tsipras's decision to reject the creditors' demands for further austerity.

Mr Tusk, the former Polish premier, has set a special summit of all 28 European Union members on Sunday as the final deadline for a deal to bail out Greece and keep it in the European single currency.

AFP