Greek PM will meet eurozone leaders and will ask for time

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will next week have his first meetings with eurozone leaders since taking office, striving to assure them he will honour a pledge for more austerity and gauging whether they could grant him more time to pull it off.

Samaras will fly to Berlin and Paris to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande. Earlier, he will meet eurozone chief Jean-Claude Juncker.

Samaras will insist he can ram through an austerity package worth about €11.5 billion – a key condition to continue receiving EU/IMF bailout funds and avoid default and a possible exit from the currency club.