Greece's finance minister said on Sunday Greece was speeding up structural reforms to exit a debt crisis and dismissed reports about a breach in the nation's relations with its international lenders.
"We have the voted measures which should be implemented and several structural issues for which our country should show better results, in a faster and more resolute way. And this is what we are doing," Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said in a statement.
Venizelos said Greece should stick to its promises against its lenders not because this was imposed from abroad but "for the sake of our children". On Friday, Greece and an EU/IMF inspection team interrupted discussions on a new aid tranche after disagreeing over why Athens has fallen behind schedule in cutting its budget deficit. Discussions are due to resume on September 14.
Greek media reported over the weekend the main reason for the disagreement was that Venizelos, after consulting Prime Minister George Papandreou, refused to take additional budget cuts that would deepen recession in the austerity-hit country. Venizelos criticised the reports saying they were scenarios "aiming at cultivating uncertainty and scaremongering".