Frustrations Soar as Greece, EU Seek Elusive Bailout Deal

What was supposed to have been a crunch meeting on Tuesday was postponed because of missing paperwork, according to one party official, delaying discussion of a deal which is likely to prove unpopular with an angry Greek electorate.

All three parties - conservative New Democracy, the PASOK socialists and far-right LAOS - finally received the 15-page document on Wednesday morning laying out the principles of the bailout and its conditions, a party official told Reuters.

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Attached to the document are a further 30 or so pages laying out how the bailout deal, which is likely to force a big cut in many Greeks' living standards, will be implemented.

Papademos's travails did not stop there.

After officials spoke optimistically that the three leaders - New Democracy's Antonis Samaras, PASOK's George Papandreou and LAOS leader George Karatzaferis - would meet in the early afternoon on Wednesday, in the space of two hours the meeting had been postponed twice.

Earlier, an official said Karatzaferis wanted all documentation translated from English - the language of negotiation with the international lenders - into Greek before he would look at them.

Another party demanded several hours to study the draft before discussions could begin, an official at the party said, requesting anonymity.

One Greek news website wrote an open letter to Papademos on Wednesday demanding that he "end this water torture."

"Greeks cannot any longer stand this torment of constant insecurity that is destroying the country and hurting our national dignity," it said. "The prime minister must end this endless bargaining that demeans the country and its citizens."

LITTLE SENSE OF URGENCY

Facing elections possibly as early as April, coalition leaders have shown little sense of urgency, seemingly deaf to demands from euro zone leaders to make up their minds fast.