Greece drags its feet through another day of talks

LONDON (ShareCast) - Another day of delays in Greece, though the end "may" be near. The Guardian's correspondent in Athens has cited government officials as saying that "there is a deal on the table and in all probability the (political) leaders will accept it". According to a "well-placed source" the leaders will receive the agreement at 16:00 and have two hours to review it before meeting with the Prime Minister, Lucas Papademos, at 18:00. It looks to be another long night for Papademos as he quarrels over the agreement with fellow Greek leaders. He was reportedly up until 04:00 this morning working out the details with the troika (IMF (Berlin: MXG1.BE - news) , ECB and EU). Greece needs to pass these austerity measures to receive approval on the second financing package worth €130bn before a €14.5bn bond payment comes due on March 20th. However, EU officials have marked February 15th as the deadline for the approval to go through in order to have the time necessary for the legal paperwork to be prepared. Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos warned about the negative effects of the debate going on in Athens. "A failure of the negotiations, a failure of the program or a default by the country means even greater sacrifices. Unfortunately, the negotiations are so tough that as soon as one chapter ends another one opens," he stated. But the two major European leaders, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, made it quite clear last night that their patience was wearing thin. The German Chancellor said that "I can't quite understand why we need a few more days." The French President agreed with Merkel that there would be no aid without the required reforms. Berlin's leader is expected to give a speech today on Europe (Chicago Options: ^REURUSD - news) 's future at 18:00. What that future may be is still somewhat unclear. Last night Merkel declared that "we want Greece to stay in the euro." However, she steered away from giving Athens the easy path out of the crisis. "I want to make clear once again that there can be no deal if the troika proposals are not implemented. They are on the table ... Something needs to happen quickly." Eurogroup Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker told German radio today that "the euro would outlast us all" and made it clear that he felt Greece would remain a part of the single currency. His logic was quite simple: "If we force them out...we would still be forced to support Greece, and would have to invest unimaginable sums. That would be at least as expensive as the virtual costs of the aid credits up to now." Meanwhile, the protestors are out in force as Greece has sparked off a 24-hour strike today. Communist party KKE leader Nikso Sofianos told an Athens' radio station that "we have to do everything in our power to stop this agreement with foreign lenders from being carried out. These measures are killing Greeks, an entire nation. We won't let them pass." Final outcome? The only thing that's clear is that we shouldn't hold our breath. JM