Eurogroup Drops Bailout Talks as Greeks Quarrel

"I did not yet receive the required political assurances from the leaders of the Greek coalition parties on the implementation of the program," he said in a statement.

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Juncker also said the funding hole required more talks with the "troika" of Greece's EU and IMF lenders.

"It has appeared that further technical work between Greece and the troika is needed in a number of areas, including the closure of the fiscal gap of 325 million euros in 2012 and the debt sustainability analysis," he added.

Critics say the drastic belt-tightening is only deepening Greece's recession, now in its fifth year. With an election expected in April, the EU wants any politician who might take power afterwards to promise to stick with the program.

The frontrunner to become prime minister, conservative New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras, indicated during Sunday's parliamentary debate that he would try to renegotiate the terms of the bailout, further sowing doubt in the minds of European leaders who say they are tired of broken promises.

"NOTHING CAN BE REVERSED"

However, a senior New Democracy official, who declined to be named, said the fact that the party had backed the package in parliament proved its commitment.

"There is no greater commitment than our vote regarding the implementation of the measures," he told Reuters.

"None of the measures we voted for can be reversed. But we will discuss with our partners measures that don't bear fruit, in order to meet our targets faster," he said. "The only thing we've said is that growth should be our priority."

The cabinet of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos met in Athens to fill the 325 million euro hole in its overall package of 3.3 billion euros in extra budget cuts this year which it must spell out in detail to get the new rescue from the EU and IMF.