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Greece has "alternative options" as deadline for deal with creditors looms: minister

Xinhua, April 15, 2015 Adjust font size:

Greece has "alternative options should a deal with international creditors not be reached," a Greek minister said on Tuesday.

The remarks by Greek Minister of Productive Reconstruction, Environment and Energy Panagiotis Lafazanis came as the latest deadline loomed for an agreement on Greece's reforms in exchange for further financial aid.

The debt-laden country could receive, for example, an advance payment from Moscow for the construction of the "Turkish Stream" natural gas pipeline, Lafazanis argued when speaking to a local radio station.

The Greek official escorted Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to Moscow last week for talks on bilateral cooperation in several fields.

However, not all Greek cabinet ministers seem to be seeking alternative options in Russia or elsewhere, but rather are focused on talks with euro zone partners.

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, who is travelling to the U.S. for a second time in ten days this week for the IMF-World Bank spring meeting, appeared confident last week that Greece could strike a deal on time in the coming days so that the next Eurogroup meeting in Riga on April 24 could give the green light for the release of vital financing.

Greece has been kept afloat with multi-billion euro rescue loans over the past five years, but with no aid since last summer as it negotiates its post-bailout cooperation with lenders, the country faces a mounting liquidity problem.

Scenarios of an imminent cash crunch in April or May have been refueled in international media, after Greece managed to meet all its domestic financial obligations and those to foreign lenders in March.

However, since Athens has missed several unofficial deadlines for a deal this spring, rumors abound that the newly elected Radical Left-led government was moving towards a rift with creditors and was preparing for a financial meltdown and new general elections or a referendum in the coming weeks.

But Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos said during an interview with a local television channel on Tuesday, "There will be no default or new elections...There will be no more austerity measures which will lead the Greek people back to recession and extreme poverty," assuring that the government would negotiate an "honorable" deal with lenders. Endit