Greece rejects lenders' calls to extend austerity past 2018

Greece Tuesday rejected pressure to extend its painful austerity programme beyond 2018 as part of a deal to bridge differences between its squabbling international creditors.

The Athens government was "determined to pursue negotiations" still ongoing with Eurozone countries and the IMF but "refuses to accept measures concerning post-2018", spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said.

The comments come a day after Eurozone lenders approved "short-term" debt relief measures for Greece, in reward for Athens' completion of a recent round of budgetary and economic reforms.

But the eurozone finance ministers gathered in Brussels refused to officially sign off on the bailout's second review, telling Athens there were still a few open questions on Greece's reform efforts.

Already huge, Greece's debt after three consecutive bailouts is on course to reach a mammoth 315 billion euros ($338 billion), or around 180 percent of gross domestic output this year, according to the latest EU data.

The IMF played a key role in the first two rescues but balked at a third in 2015, worth 86 billion euros, warning that Athens would never get back on its feet unless its debt mountain was cut outright.

But Germany, facing public bailout fatigue and a federal election next year, has led a hardline stance among the eurozone lenders to force Greece to forge ahead with austerity reforms well beyond 2018.

Disagreement with the IMF, which says the demands on Athens are too great to be sustained, has bogged down the so-called second review to unblock Greece's bailout funds.

Tzanakopoulos said Athens still hoped to complete the second review "if possible by the end of the year", and called on Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble of Germany and the IMF to "play a constructive role" by "ceasing to insist on extreme austerity which is catastrophic from a social standpoint and inefficient economically."

Greece also wants its EU creditors to ease up on demands over the so-called "primary balance", the surplus from public finances before debt repayments that Greece is supposed to reach after 2018.

Hardline EU states want Greece to run a net surplus, after debt servicing, of 3.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), but Athens' spokesman called for that figure to be reduced after 2018.

The target of 3.5 percent is very high -- and most countries do not even come close -- but Germany believes it is the only way to solve the Greek issue once and for all and wants Athens to keep the pace for 10 years after the end of the current bailout in 2018.