Summary Greek blueprints for a deal will be examined alongside a European Commission version
ATHENS (AFP) - Greece said Friday "important steps" had been taken at crunch bailout talks with the EU, but warned against unbridled optimism, saying there were issues likely to prove snag points on the path to a deal.
"We have not yet got to an agreement but important steps have been made," a government source said.
The country s stock market closed up over 5.0 percent on the news that the deadlock between Athens and its creditors at a Brussels meeting of eurozone finance ministers earlier this week had been broken.
The new hard-left government agreed Thursday to start technical talks with eurozone partners in a bid to find common ground over their plans to ditch part of the country s unpopular EU-IMF bailout.
At a second eurogroup finance ministers meeting Monday, the Greek blueprints for a deal will be examined alongside a European Commission version "to distinguish common ground and differences," the source said.
"There seems to be a deal on the fight against corruption and tax evasion, as well as the reform of the civil service," but questions remain on "labour rights, the primary budget surplus and privatisations, which are non-negotiable," he said.
And "health reform, redundancy, social security" are likely to be points of disagreement on which the deal could snag, he added.
Government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis said the government remained determined not to give ground on what it considers "red line" issues, and warned against "spreading enthusiasm before the deal is done."
"Greeks should understand that this is a critical and difficult negotiation, the pressure is enormous," he said.
The EU wants Greece to apply to extend its bailout to buy it time to work out a longer-term solution to reduce its mammoth debt, which currently stands at 175 percent of its Gross Domestic Product.
But PM Alexis Tsipras wants a six-month bridging programme which would liberate Greece from what it sees as onerous bailout obligations and give it the opportunity to come to a new agreement with the EU.
- New breath for economy -
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The country is facing a possible exit from the euro if it cannot secure a deal before its 240-billion-euro ($270-billion) EU-IMF bailout expires at the end of February.
"We need the policy of austerity to be relaxed, we need to give new breath" to the economy, Sakellaridis said.
Despite the limited time to reach a deal, Greeks were cautiously optimistic that real change was coming.
"Bridge of dialogue," wrote centre-left Ethnos daily while liberal Kathimerini saw a "window of opportunity for compromise."
Youli Karaviti, a 42-year old shopkeeper watching the change of the guard in front of parliament, told AFP: "I think there will be a solution after all these efforts. We need to insist, and not allow ourselves to be pressured."
Nearby newspaper vendor Dimitris Vihas said he thought the agreement to hold technical talks was "a move in the right direction, we ll see where it takes us."
Diplomatic efforts risked being hindered by a newspaper caricature in a Greek daily that showed Germany s Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble in a Nazi-era army uniform, alluding to the Holocaust.
The cartoon depicts Germany s finance minister in a Wehrmacht uniform saying "we insist on the soap from your fat... We are prepared to discuss the fertiliser from your ashes".
The headline reads, "The negotiation has begun", referring to the talks the new Syriza-led government in Athens is holding with its eurozone partners on debt relief and economic reforms.
A spokesman for minister on Friday slammed it as "vile", but the artist who created the cartoon in Sunday s Avgi newspaper, a pro-Syriza party daily, was unrepentant, telling AFP it was not supposed to be funny.
