The Greek debt-relief headache.

Eurozone finance ministers will meet on Monday as far apart as ever on the debt-relief measures demanded by the IMF for it to back their bail-out programme for Greece.

The IMF played a key role in two massive rescues for Greece but baulked at a third in 2015, worth €86bn, warning that Athens would never get back on its feet unless its debt mountain was cut outright.

The fund is obliged to lend only to countries that can repay, and MD Christine Lagarde has been accused of bending the rules in the two previous bailouts to help save the eurozone.

Germany insists that Greece must meet all its commitments on spending cuts and tax hikes before measures to reduce debt — equal to about 180% of GDP — can be considered.

“We are going around in circles,” one EU official said, as an end-of-year deadline to resolve the impasse looms large.

The situation is further complicated by differences within the eurozone. France — where public finances are far from healthy — believes Athens should be cut some slack.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and French President Francois Hollande agreed that “a deal on a technical level is needed by [Monday] and measures for debt relief by the end of the year are imperative”.

During a May review, the EU and IMF agreed to start discussions on debt relief by the end of 2016 if Athens met its reform pledges. The issue turns on a key figure that Greece is supposed to reach: 3.5%. That is the primary balance, or the surplus on the public finances before debt repayments. The target is very high, but Germany and other eurozone hardliners believe it is the only way to solve the issue once and for all, even if Greece has to take additional austerity measures to get there.

For the IMF, that option is totally unrealistic. An economy with an already unsustainable debt burden cannot be expected to tighten the screws further.

A source close to the negotiations suggested the IMF might appear to go along, “just to show how impossible it is”.

Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem told European MPs that debt-relief measures would be discussed on Monday in the hopes of persuading the IMF to sign on to the bail-out. “The IMF has a point that running a primary surplus of 3.5% of GDP … is a huge thing to ask and we need to be realistic,” he said.