Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and his coalition partners agreed Wednesday to most of the 11.5 billion euros (14.2 billion dollars) in additional cuts demanded by creditors, but insisted that the programme should be extended, dpa reported. The premier, of conservative New Democracy, met leaders of the socialist PASOK party and small Democratic Left party after five days of cabinet level talks failed to produce results. Samaras won a June 17 election on a campaign to renegotiate Greece's bailout conditions, but the request has not been met with enthusiasm from its creditors, the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Debt inspectors are scheduled to return to Athens on July 26 to discuss the new round of proposed cuts starting in 2013 with Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras. After the meeting with coalition leaders, Stournaras said they had agreed to most of the cuts and talks would continue in order to pinpoint further savings. The finance minister did not specify what the cuts would entail, but the government could be forced to eventually slash public benefits further to help cover the 11.5 billion euros in budget savings. The government promised to give austerity-weary Greeks a break, saying that they would be spared new austerity measures for this year.
