BREAKING NEWS

Finance Minister Varoufakis says Greece plans to meet 'all obligations'

WASHINGTON- Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said on Sunday Greece "intends to meet all obligations to all its creditors, ad infinitum" following a meeting in Washington with International Monetary Fund officials.
He told reporters the government also plans to "reform Greece deeply" and to try to improve the "efficacy of negotiations" with its creditors.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in a statement after meeting with Varoufakis that she welcomed his confirmation that Athens would make a loan payment due to the IMF later this week.
The euro zone country is fast running out of cash, but its EU and IMF lenders have frozen bailout aid until the leftist-led government reaches agreement on a package of reforms.
Greek Minister of State Alekos Flabouraris told Greece's Skai TV that Varoufakis would ask the IMF to help pick up the pace of the negotiations, which have been tense and slow-moving.
Most urgently, Greece is on the hook for a roughly 450 million euro loan repayment to the IMF due this Thursday.
"I welcomed confirmation by the Minister that payment owing to the Fund would be forthcoming on April 9th," Lagarde said.
She said due diligence efforts in Athens and talks with teams in Brussels over the terms of Greece's bailout would "resume promptly on Monday."