Greece had warned EC and IMF it won't be able to pay up

Athens

GREEK Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had warned foreign officials that Athens would not be able to pay the 750 million euros (S$1.1 billion) due this month to the IMF, Greek newspapers said on Sunday.

The reports came less than a week after Athens admitted that it tapped into an emergency account to pay back the loan, in order to avoid crashing out of the eurozone.

On May 8, Mr Tsipras wrote to European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank officials to warn them that Greece would be unable to meet its May 12 deadline, unless its creditors agreed to release a final 7.2 billion euro tranche of its bailout, Kathimerini daily said, citing European officials.

It also said Mr Tsipras contacted US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. But Kathimerini said Greece's creditors saw the warning as a "possible b…