Greece's deputy prime minister accused EU-IMF creditors of preventing his radical government from doing its job, while admitting that his country is being strangled by a cash shortage.
"They are not letting us govern," Ioannis Dragasakis told Alpha TV late on Wednesday, hours before European leaders were to hold talks with Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras over the looming cash crunch.
Tsipras is seeking to renegotiate the terms of Greece's 240-billion-euro ($255-billion) international bailout, but several EU members including powerful Germany are adamant that Athens stand by its commitments to its creditors.
With no deal in sight, the creditors have withheld billions of euros in promised loans.
"We have a liquidity problem," Dragasakis said in the interview.
"We have not received loans since August, yet we are paying all our debt obligations.
"We have an economy drawing money to repay loans, and this creates asphyxiation," he said.
Besides Thursday's meeting in Brussels, Tsipras is also due to visit Berlin on Monday for one-on-one talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Fears are growing of a potentially disastrous Greek exit from the euro -- whether by accident or design -- with Athens facing the possibility of being unable to pay its bills by Friday.
Source: AFP