Greece lurches closer to default as bailout talks go to wire

By Ian Wishart, Jonathan Stearns & Corina Ruhe

European officials resumed talks on Greece's bailout on Thursday after a day of negotiations broke up in the early hours without ending the standoff that has brought the country on the cusp of a default.

With the Greek government saying it held firm in the flurry of meetings in Brussels on Wednesday, European Union officials said the talks yielded little progress and no breakthrough was in sight. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the heads of the three creditor institutions agreed to reconvene first thing on Thursday after a few hours' sleep. Technical experts were meeting in Brussels Thursday morning to prepare the ground for the fresh talks, with sticking points ranging from pensions and sales tax increases to debt relief.

The race for a deal is accelerating as Greece moves nearer to the June 30 expiry of its euro-area bailout without any agreement in place ensuring it can meet a payment of 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) to the International Monetary Fund that falls due the same day.

"It's going to the wire," Finland's Alexander Stubb told reporters after a meeting of euro-area finance chiefs in Brussels broke. Ministers will resume at 1 p.m., by which time "we hope to have a concrete proposal," he said. "It's important to keep the process going."

The new impasse caught investors off guard and stocks retreated around the globe amid concern the five-month Greek standoff will fester, with disagreement persisting over the conditions attached to a resumption of aid for Europe's most indebted nation.

Equities and bonds surged earlier in the week after a new round of Greek proposals showed that Tsipras was finally starting to negotiate with his creditors. That...