Eurozone fails to reach debt deal for Greece

BRUSSELS - Eurozone finance ministers failed to reach an agreement for fresh bailout funds for Greece after a meeting in Brussels, said Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem on Monday.

Dijsselbloem told a news conference after the Eurogroup meeting that a preliminary agreement had been reached between Greece and the eurozone, which is an important step toward the finalization of the second review of Greece's macroeconomic adjustment program.

However, the Eurogroup did not reach an overall agreement after an in-depth discussion on the sustainability of Greece's public debt, because a possible gap "between what could be done and what some of us had expected" was unable to be closed.

Greece was commended due to the progress it has achieved in implementing "a significant part of the agreed reform measures, covering areas such as pensions, income tax, the labor market and the energy sector," said the president.

"We are committed to work further to try and come to a definite conclusion in the next Eurogroup," he added.

Greece was now under the second review of its third economic adjustment program, which started in August 2015 and was scheduled to run through August next year.

Conditions for receiving the 86-billion-euro (about 96.6 billion US dollars) bailout include a number of measures and reforms that Greece has pledged to implement in order to address its current economic challenges.