Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Sunday spoke with the leaders of France and Germany in their second conference call in three days to discuss progress in the talks between Athens and its lenders, Greek officials said. The 35-minute call with French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel "went very well," and it was agreed that a deal must be completed very soon, the officials said according to AP. The German government described the conversation as constructive but gave no further details. Similar optimistic statements from Greek officials in the past few days about "technical talks" in Brussels hadn't been echoed by other parties. The radical left-led Syriza government that was elected in January is running out of cash. It urgently needs to wind up negotiations with creditors on what reforms it must make to get a vital 7.2 billion euro ($7.8 billion) payment from the bailout plan that has kept it afloat for five years. Otherwise, the country could default within weeks and crash out of the euro currency union. Following Sunday's conference call, Tsipras met for two hours with Finance Minister Yannis Varoufakis, who told reporters he was optimistic for a deal "soon."
