Greece and creditors are converging, but 'high-level' intervention needed

The official in charge of leading negotiations between Greece and its creditors has said that 'high-level' political intervention in Europe is needed before the two sides can strike a deal.

Euclid Tsakalotos, the lead negotiator and Greece's deputy foreign minister, said both parties were "converging" as talks continued in Brussels, though senior political figures will have to step in to "bridge the gap".

His comments followed a series of contrasting claims from each side over the last couple of days - a number of Greek officials had suggested a deal was close, while creditors said there was still a lot of work to do.

Officials from Athens and representatives of the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and European Commission "will never converge completely but the general impression is that they are converging", he said.

“There is now a reasonable chance that whatever convergence still needs to be done after the Brussels Group will be done at a higher level where politicians will be called in for the final trade-off and will bridge the gap.”

Greece's government has already said it will not be able to make its 5 June deadline to complete a €305m debt repayment to the IMF without a deal to secure its next tranche of aid.

Tsakalotos placed some of the blame for the lack of progress in negotiations on the IMF, which is being "very, very tough on all the issues". He said the Fund had taken a hardened stance and was "not really engaging in proper discussion".