Greece finalizes 11.6 billion euros in cuts

Greece has identified 11.6 billion in spending cuts over the next two years to put its troubled structural reforms on track, a finance ministry source said Thursday. The cuts, still to be approved by the socialist and moderate leftist parties in conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' coalition, were finalised after talks with senior EU-IMF auditors late Wednesday, the source told AFP. Samaras will meet with his political allies -- Pasok leader Evangelos Venizelos and Democratic Left leader Fotis Kouvelis -- at 1100 GMT. He is then to meet with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso -- who is holding his first visit to Athens in three years -- at 1430 GMT. The audit mission from the EU, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank are to report on Greece's progress in implementing reforms sidetracked after a two-month political deadlock following two elections. The report is expected to be made public at the end of August or early September, and will determine whether Greece will draw 31.5 billion euros from its EU-IMF loan programme to keep the economy afloat. The money is needed to pay state salaries and pensions, and to recapitalise banks hit by a sovereign debt rollover earlier this year. But in Brussels as in Athens most agree that Greece will not be able to reach the goals included in the second bailout package that it signed with its creditors in February.