Greek eurozone hope hangs in a thread

Greece's crunch talks with its European creditors broke down after just four hours today, pushing the country closer towards a potential exit from the single currency.

Greece refused to countenance an extension of the existing €172bn bailout programme, while the rest of the eurozone's finance ministers said this was a non-negotiable first step to talks.

“There is no alternative to a request to an extension of the programme” said Pierre Moscovici, the European Commission's economics and financial affairs commissioner. That  was echoed by Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the chairman of the Eurogroup.

Dijsselbloem said there could be a new Eurogroup meeting tomorrow if Greece requested an extension over the next few days. However, the Greek side suggested that Dijsselbloem had gone back on an earlier understanding by trying to push Greece into extending the existing agreement.

 The Athens government has repeatedly said it will not agree to continue with the existing programme, which it blames for pushing Greece into a deep economic depression. It is instead demanding a bridge loan from creditors until the summer while an entirely new programme can be fashioned. It wants this to include a cancellation of a large tranche of the country's debt and an easing of the requirement for Greece to run primary budget surpluses for the forseeable future.

The Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis, said there would be no capitulation to the pressure from the Eurogroup.

The country's bailout is due to lapse on 28 February. Without a new agreement in place by then, Greece could find its banking system shut off from access to the European Central Bank's liquidity lifeline.