Eurozone ministers are meeting in Brussels to try and agree a second bailout deal for Greece, as the troubled country teeters on the brink of bankruptcy.
Ministers from 17 eurozone countries, including France, Germany and Italy, are negotiating with Greece to secure the €130 billion ( £170 billion) needed to stop Greece from defaulting on its loans next month, which would spell catastrophe for the beleaguered state as well as having a calamitous knock-on effect for Europe.
The rescue deal is expected to write off €100 billion of debt, with private creditors expected to receive cash and bonds that are due to mature in 30 years. In return they will be expected to accept 70% less money than Greece originally owed them.
Greece will be placed under strict supervision and be subject to exacting guarantees in return for the money.
Greece will be placed under strict supervision and be subject to exacting guarantees in return for the money. Dutch finance minister Jan Kees De Jager is one of the ministers that wanted Greece's finances to be controlled centrally by the IMF and European Central Bank.
"There has to be rigid and very strict implementation by Greece of our demands" he told reporters this afternoon, according to the Guardian
French Finance Minister Francois Baroin told the radio station Europe 1: "I will argue that we have all the elements [necessary] for an agreement."
Luxembourg prime minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, who is chairman of the eurozone finance ministers group, said that Greece had fulfilled many of the guarantees that the eurozone had asked for and was optimistic that a rescue deal would be reached.
This will be the second bail out that Greece has needed from Europe after Athens received €109 billion in 2010.