Lenders decide Greek talks must intensify at Berlin meeting

By Nikos Chrysoloras, Alessandro Speciale & Rebecca Christie

European leaders and the head of the International Monetary Fund agreed to step up the intensity of talks over Greece?s fate after an extraordinary meeting in Berlin about ways to avert a default.

The top-level huddle lasted past midnight Tuesday morning at Germany?s government headquarters with Chancellor Angela Merkel, IMF chief Christine Lagarde, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, French President Francois Hollande and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in attendance. The goal was to hammer out an offer that Greece could consider in coming days, according to two people familiar with the plan.

After Merkel left, her office put out a statement saying the five leaders ?agreed that work must now be continued with greater intensity? and that ?they have been in closest contact in recent days and want to remain so in the coming days, both among themselves and naturally also with the Greek government.?

Efforts to end an impasse over funding have become urgent as the Mediterranean nation faces a debt repayment to the IMF on Friday. While Greece says it can make the payment, it?s the smallest of four totaling almost 1.6 billion euros ($1.78 billion) this month. The timing coincides with the expiration of a euro-region bailout by the end of June.

With talks dragging into their fifth month, deadlines have come and gone with meetings, calls and summits yielding little as disagreements over pensions and labor laws persisted.

?Even a mediocre agreement is much better than the alternative for Greece, which is bankruptcy,? said Nicholas Economides, professor of economics at New York University?s Stern School of Business. ?Bankruptcy within the...