(MENAFN- AFP) Eurozone finance ministers will hold an extraordinary meeting in Brussels to discuss the stand-off over Greece's bailout next Wednesday, the day before an EU summit, Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said.
The meeting will be the first chance for Greek Finance Minister Yaris Varoufakis to set out to sceptical colleagues the radical new government's demands for a reduction in Greece's debt and an end to austerity.
"Extra Eurogroup on Greece on Wednesday 11 Feb," Dijsselbloem, who heads the Eurogroup of finance ministers from the 19 countries that use the single currency, said on Twitter.
Leaders of the 28 European Union nations, including new Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, will meet in Brussels the following day for a summit that is officially meant to focus on terrorism and Ukraine but will likely have to tackle Greece.
Dijsselbloem had a notably chilly encounter with Varoufakis -- the "rock star" former economics professor who has caused a stir with his casual dress and radical plans -- in Athens on January 31.
Sources had already told AFP on Tuesday that a Eurogroup meeting on January 11 was very likely and would give Varoufakis a chance to "put his ideas on the table".
Tsipras and Varoufakis, whose radical left Syriza party stormed to victory in elections on January 25, have gone on a tour of major European capitals in recent days to build support for a renegotiation of the country's 240-billion-euro ($275-billion) EU-IMF bailout.
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