(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) Finance ministers of the 19-member Eurozone went into a crunch meeting in Luxembourg Thursday afternoon to discuss the Greek debt crisis but they did not sound optimistic that an agreement would be reached today.

"Too little progress has been made and there are still major gaps in the Greek position and the position of the institutions (European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund) . The announcements (in Greece) have not been very positive so I don't have a lot of hope," Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Eurogroup President, told reporters as he arrived for the meeting.

"I am not sure whether we will make any progress," Dijsselbloem added but refused to speculate what will happen if Greece failed to make the repayment of 1.7 billion euro to the IMF due on 30 June.

"Greece will have to deliver on all the international creditors otherwise we will have a serious situation," he stressed.

On his part, Pierre Moscovici, EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary
Affairs said "today's meeting might not be conclusive but it must be a meeting that opens the way for a solution." Belgian finance minister Johan Van Overtveldt, said "we will see with what the Greek Government comes up, all depends on them. We will see what they bring on the table." Alexander Stubb, finance minister of Finland, said the ball is in the court of the Greek side to reach a deal with its international creditors to unlock the outstanding bailout of 7.2 billion euro.

"If there is a will there is a way. There is always hope. To be honest, I am not very hopeful ," he told reporters . On his part, Yanis Varoufakis , Minister of Finance of Greece, said "some time ago, Mario Draghi, the President of the ECB, said quite correctly that for the euro to succeed anywhere it must succeed everywhere. " "We think he's absolutely spot-on. Today we are going to be presenting the Greek government's ideas along those lines. The purpose is to replace costly discord with effective consensus," he added. Pierre Gramegna, Minister for Finance of Luxembourg , said "we must find an agreement in the coming days. We want Greece to remain in the eurozone and find the right agreement." On Wednesday, Greece's central bank warned for the first time that the country could suffer a "painful" exit from the eurozone and eventually from the EU if it fails to reach a deal. (end) nk.gb