Greece postpones IMF payment amid demands to end austerity

ATHENS, Greece — Greece delayed a debt payment to the International Monetary Fund due today as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, facing fury among leftist supporters, demanded changes to terms from creditors for aid to stave off default.

IMF officials said Greece’s government planned to bundle four payments due in June into a single 1.6 billion euro lump sum now due on June 30.

It was the first time in five years of crisis that Greece has postponed a repayment on its 240 billion euro bailouts from European governments and the IMF, even though Tsipras said earlier this week that Greece had the money and would make the payment.

The delay came as German Chancellor Angela Merkel said talks on a cash-forreforms deal were still far from reaching an agreement.

In a sign of accelerating efforts to bridge differences, Tsipras, Merkel and French President Francois Hollande spoke Thursday via conference call, according to a Greek government official.

Tsipras told the two leaders the lenders’ proposal could not be a basis for a deal because it was not taking into account the progress made in talks in Brussels over the past months.

Tsipras, elected in January on a promise to end austerity, returned from late night talks with EU officials in Brussels to face an outcry over conditions that would breach the “red lines” his Syriza party has declared.

He told ministers the government could not accept “extreme proposals” and that creditors should understand the Greek people had suffered enough.

Tsipras rejected pension cuts and a tax increase on electricity that he said the lenders were demanding along with other conditions to win the release of frozen loans and avert a default that could hit euro zone and world markets.

Sources said the creditors’ plan asked Greece’s government to commit to selling off state assets and maintaining labor reforms.

The lenders were demanding that Greece reduce spending on pensions and increasing the value-added tax on products ranging from drugs to electricity.

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