Greece 'reaches debt deal with creditors'

Greece on Tuesday reached agreement with its international creditors on a new wave of austerity measures necessary to unlock new bailout loans, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said. "Today we concluded the negotiation on the measures and the budget," Samaras said in a statement, adding that approval by parliament of a new round of cuts will keep Greece in the 17-nation eurozone. "If this deal is approved and the budget is voted, Greece will stay in the euro and exit the crisis," the prime minister said. Samaras has warned that the country will run out of cash next month unless it can secure a 31.2-billion-euro ($40-billion) loan instalment from its EU-IMF financial assistance package, which depends on progress on stalled reforms. "If the deal does not pass...the country will be led to chaos," he said. The PM has sought to persuade his socialist and moderate leftist allies to help push the measures through parliament by November 12, when eurozone finance ministers are expected to decide on whether to release the loans. "We did whatever was possible," Samaras said. "We achieved important improvements, even at the last minute." The Democratic Left party that supports the coalition continues to oppose an additional raft of required labour reforms which it says goes beyond a prior pledge by Greece for spending cuts of 13.5 billion euros over the next two years. The government has enough votes in parliament to pass the package even if the moderate leftists refuse to give their support.