1st LD Writethru: Greek PM says central Bank of Greece suggests bank holiday, capital controls

The central Bank of Greece recommended a bank holiday and the imposition of capital controls, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said during a televised address to the nation on Sunday evening.

In parallel Athens renewed the request to international creditors for an extension of the bailout for a few days, he said in a final bid to avert dramatic developments in coming days.

The Greek leader did not clarify whether the banks would remain shut and capital controls would be imposed as of Monday in a bid to deal with an alarming increasing bank run during the weekend amidst fears of a looming credit event, as Finance Ministry sources said.

He assured that in any case pensions and salaries would be paid normally this week and called on Greeks to remain cool and resist "blackmails".

The address was made a few hours after the European Central Bank decided to keep the emergency liquidity assistance flow to the Greek banking system at current levels following Athens' surprise move on Saturday to call a referendum next Sunday.

After the collapse of five month negotiations with international lenders on the terms of post bailout cooperation the Leftist government called voters to accept or reject the draft deal tabled by lenders on Thursday in Brussels.

The step triggered a series of reactions starting with Euro Group's decision on Saturday that the extended second bailout expires on June 30, as the two sides agreed in February, and no further extension would be granted with no deal.

Without an agreement on June 30 Greece was unlikely to make the delayed loan installment to International Monetary Fund. Endit