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Eurozone officials cancelled a Wednesday meeting set to approve an austerity plan Greek officials agreed on earlier this week and replaced it with a conference call so "outstanding issues" of the austerity plan can be worked out, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
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The European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank, known collectively as the troika, have tentatively agreed to give Greece about $172 billion -- its second financial rescue -- so it will not default on its massive sovereign debt, provided the nation slash government spending and boost taxes.
Greek leaders early this week agreed on the required austerity plan and had expected the troika to approve the plan at the Wednesday meeting, which had been set for Brussels. But that meeting has been replaced by a conference call.
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"Against this background, I have decided to convene ministers to a conference call tomorrow in order to discuss the outstanding issues and prepare the ordinary meeting of the Eurogroup on Monday, 20 February, 2012," the Eurogroup's president and Luxembourg prime minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, said, according to the Journal.
But Junker said more time was needed to work "in a number of areas," including how to close a $425 million fiscal gap this year and the debt sustainability analysis, the Journal said.
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Juncker also said he "did not yet receive the required political assurances from the leaders of the Greek coalition parties on the implementation of the program."
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