Greece's new left-wing
finance minister says his government will not negotiate over the Greek bailout
conditions with the "troika" team from the EU and IMF.
He was speaking after
meeting Jeroen Dijsselbloem, head of the eurozone group of finance ministers,
in Athens. Mr Dijsselbloem said Greece should stick to its reform commitments.
He said Greece and the
Eurogroup had a "mutual interest in the further recovery of the Greek
economy inside the eurozone" and warned against Athens acting unilaterally
in its efforts to renegotiate its bailout.
Greece has endured
tough budget cuts in return for its €240bn (£179bn; $270bn) bailout, agreed in
2010 with the "troika" - the European Commission, International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Central Bank (ECB).
In Berlin, German
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the Greeks should abide by their
commitments, adding: "There's no arguing with us about this and, what's
more, we are difficult to blackmail."
New agreement?
There was little
warmth between the two men at the news conference, with Mr Dijsselbloem making
a brusque exit.
Breaking with
tradition, Mr Varoufakis wore an open-neck shirt - hanging loose at his belt.
Mr Dijsselbloem was dressed conventionally.
On the troika, Mr
Varoufakis said "we have no intention of co-operating with a three-member
committee whose goal is to implement a programme whose logic we consider
anti-European".
Mr Dijsselbloem, who
is also Dutch finance minister, said the two sides would decide what would
happen next before the bailout programme ends - that is, by 28 February.
He also met Greek
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Athens, who led the Syriza radical left-wing
coalition to victory in elections on Sunday.
Mr Varoufakis,
meanwhile, said Greece was not asking for an extension of the existing bailout,
but seeking a "new agreement that will emerge following talks between all
Europeans".
He said he would seek
"maximum co-operation" with Greece's international creditors, but
that he would not work through the troika, which he called "a committee
built on rotten foundations".
Mr Dijsselbloem rejected
Mr Tsipras's idea of convening a European conference on debt. "This
conference already exists and it's called the Eurogroup," he told the news
conference.