Greece pleads for help but Germany warns against breakthrough

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras urged European leaders at a summit Thursday to help him tackle a looming cash crunch despite warnings from Germany that he should expect no breakthrough.
As fears mounted of a Greek exit from the euro and tensions climbed between Athens and its creditors over its huge bailout, Tsipras told his counterparts Greece faced a "humanitarian crisis".
He addressed the full meeting of 28 leaders ahead of a special sidelines talks after the summit with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and top EU officials.
European alarm that Tsipras's new hard-left government will not stick to planned austerity reforms increased after the Greek parliament adopted a crisis bill aimed at helping the poor on Wednesday.
"At the summit, Alexis Tsipras said it was contradictory that Europe accepts that there is a humanitarian crisis in Greece, while at the same time accusing Greece of unilateral action when it votes for measures to deal with it," a government statement out of Athens said.
Tsipras accused Greece's creditors in the EU, IMF and ECB of "holding up red cards", saying this was "holding back progress" on completing Greece's 240-billion-euro ($255-billion) bailout by June as agreed last month.
Brussels has gone head to head with the new Greek government, insisting it must keep its reform promises before it gets the last seven-billion-euro tranche of the rescue package.
Time is running out for Athens as Friday brings a key debt deadline when Greece must pay 300 million euros to the IMF and redeem 1.6 billion euros in treasury bills.
- Merkel warning -
Merkel, the powerful leader of Europe's biggest economy, said Greece should not get its hopes up for an immediate solution on Thursday.
"I would like to say, do not expect any solution, do not expect a breakthrough," she told reporters as she arrived at the summit.
She is due to meet Tsipras in Berlin on Monday.
Hollande meanwhile urged the Greek government to "show they will carry out reforms."
"There is nothing wrong with the Greek government making efforts for the poor but what we are asking of Greece is that it makes the rich pay their taxes," he said.
The Greek crisis has opened new and historic tensions alike in the 28-nation EU, which when taken together has a population of 500 million and is the world's largest economy.
Greece has angered Berlin by demanding World War II reparations, but Germany's minister for European affairs paved the way to a compromise Thursday by saying Berlin may increase its contribution to a German-Greek fund.
Meanwhile Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg complained to EU President Donald Tusk that they had been frozen out of the mini-summit. "I am angry," Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said.
European Parliament President Martin Schulz also said he should have been involved, dismissing the meeting as a "flash mob".
Tusk, the former Polish premier who took over the post in December, said he had agreed to Tsipras's request for the special meeting because he feared a discussion in the full 28-nation summit "could be a little bit too hot".
"Nobody wants a so-called Grexit. Everybody wants to avoid this risk of so-called Grexident," he said.
The separate Greece meeting will also be attended by European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker, European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi and Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who chairs the euro single currency group.
Dijsselbloem too played down hopes of a deal, saying that it was to assess progress "which appears small".
- Russia sanctions -
The EU leaders will also debate whether to roll over economic sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine conflict from their expiry date in July until December.
Merkel said the sanctions should be tied to the timeline of February's Minsk II accord, which is the basis of a shaky ceasefire in eastern Ukraine between Kiev and pro-Kremlin rebels.
The sanctions were imposed after the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 last July, the bloodiest single incident of a conflict that has claimed more than 6,000 lives.
"New sanctions won't happen," one diplomat said.
In Brussels, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk warned EU leaders Thursday to keep the pressure on Russia, saying it would be a "disaster" if they allowed President Vladimir Putin to "split the unity" over sanctions.