Frustration as Greeks 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 will further inflame 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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There were seen arriving at the prime minister's office at around 1500 GMT.

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

The draft of the bailout includes plans to cut the minimum wage by about 20-22 percent, a government official said. It also gives political leaders the option of cutting pensions over 1,200 euros by up to 20 percent or cutting supplementary pensions by 15 percent on average or a combination of cuts in both main and supplementary pensions, the official said.

DELAY AND MORE DELAY

After officials spoke optimistically that the three leaders - New Democracy's Antonis Samaras, PASOK's George Papandreou and LAOS leader George Karatzaferis - would meet just after noon on Wednesday, the meeting was delayed again.

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.

The far-right leader then threatened to abandon the meeting because he had not received the Greek version of the document, though he has backed down from similar threats in the past.

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."