Greece seeks ECB bridging funds, vows to respect EU rules

By John O'Donnell & Jan Strupczewski

Greece's new leftist government appealed to the European Central Bank on Wednesday to keep its banks afloat and vowed to respect European Union rules as it seeks a negotiated solution with euro zone partners to reduce its debt burden.

Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said after meeting ECB President Mario Draghi in Frankfurt he believed Athens could count on central bank support during the short period it would take to conclude talks with international lenders.

Banking sources told Reuters that two Greek banks have begun to receive emergency liquidity assistance from the Bank of Greece after an outflow of deposits accelerated after the victory of the hard left SYRIZA party in a general election on Jan. 25.

The Greek government wants that funding to continue because if the ECB were to halt it, Greek banks could collapse, forcing the country out of the eurozone.

Promising to end five years of austerity, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Varoufakis are meeting senior officials across Europe to seek support for a new agreement on Greece's debt.

Their reception has been cautious so far, even in eurozone countries such as France and Italy which Athens had hoped would support its case for debt relief.

European Council President Donald Tusk said after meeting Tsipras in Brussels that any solution must be acceptable to all member states, a veiled reference to Germany, Greece's biggest creditor which takes the hardest line on fiscal discipline.

"Those negotiations ... will be difficult, will require cooperation and dialogue as well as determined efforts by Greece," Tusk said.

Tsipras, 40, said after talks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker that Greece...