article: Greece warned it will go bankrupt next week after failing to stump up enough cash to pay millions of public sector workers and its international debts. Deputy finance minister Dimitras Mardas set alarm bells ringing yesterday when he declared the country had been 'running on empty' since February. With a debt repayment deadline looming on May 1, Greece faces the deeply damaging prospect of having to snub its own employees to make a €200m payment to the International Monetary Fund. In a sign of the bleak climate engulfing the country, Greece's biggest tax office had its electricity cut off yesterday after the finance ministry failed to pay its power bills. At a summit in Brussels today, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is expected to appeal to German Chancellor Angela Merkel for more aid to avoid going bust and a potential exit from the euro. Dire straights: Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras arrives at an European Union leaders summit in Brussels as the country warned it was on the verge of bankruptcy with salary and debt repayment looming . Mardas caused consternation by saying Greece was about €350-400m short of funds needed this month to pay salaries and pensions that are due at the end of the month. But two hours later, he said the money had been found from social security funds and state corporations not listed on the stock exchange that would put their reserves in a Bank of Greece account. EU leaders fear the left-wing Syriza government will choose its workers, potentially pushing it out of the Eurozone and landing Europe with yet another crisis, it was reported by The Times. At a meeting today, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was expected to press Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to move faster to agree detailed economic reforms crucial to unlock international bailout funds before Athens runs out of cash. The conservative German leader was due to meet the leftist Greek premier a day before eurozone finance ministers meet in Riga to review progress -- or the lack of it -- in slow-moving negotiations between Athens and its creditors. EU officials said they expected Merkel to deliver a message that she wants to keep Greece in the single currency area and avoid a catastrophic default. EU leaders fear Mr Tsipras's left-wing Syriza government will choose to pay its workers than its IMF creditors, risking a default that potentially pushes it out of the Eurozone and lands Europe with yet another crisis . But to achieve that, Tsipras's government must make commitments in technical talks on detailed, costed measures to make public finances sustainable. 'At the highest level, the Germans want to keep Greece in the euro area and find a solution, but time is running short and there may have to be more drama before Tsipras can put his foot down and reach an agreement,' one senior official said. A Greek government official told Reuters in Athens that Tsipras would outline specific reforms to Merkel in a bid to appease creditors and is hoping she will intervene so that there is a breakthrough in the negotiations. The chancellor has so far insisted it is up to Athens to satisfy representatives of the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank. European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis, speaking in Berlin, said there were increasing doubts about the situation in Greece, warning that if financial instability returned, there would be no economic growth this year. He said he no longer expected an accord this month but negotiations could run beyond an April 30 deadline for a deal and he expected agreement sometime during May. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was expected to press Greek PM Alexis Tsipras to move faster to agree detailed economic reforms crucial to unlock international bailout funds before Athens runs out of cash . UEFA's general secretary Gianni Infantino has warned that there will be no choice but to suspend Greece from international football unless the country's government rescinds proposed new laws. The Greek government has put forward a bill which could see sporting events cancelled due to incidents of crowd violence and teams prohibited from playing in European competition. UEFA and FIFA say that is direct government interference in football and have threatened to suspend Greece. Infantino said: 'Sadly there will be no other choice than to suspend the Greek Football Federation if this new legislation is passed because football does not allow government interference. 'There are currently three other countries, outside of Europe, which are currently facing similar issues - Indonesia, Pakistan and Zimbabwe. 'I think people in Greece should be very concerned because a suspension will have a serious impact on their football. Don't forget that it will affect more than the national team. If your clubs don't play in our competitions, their coefficient will also drop, meaning that less teams can qualify for the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League.' UEFA and FIFA sent a final letter of warning on Wednesday but the Greek government is refusing to back down. Greece's deputy sports minister Stavros Kontonis told Greek television on Wednesday night: 'We are not going to change the philosophy of the sports bill. The supervision exercised in Greek football by FIFA and UEFA has failed.' Given its tight cash position, Greece had reasons to speed up the talks and its reform plans. 'Progress is not good,' he told ARD German television. Greece has yet to agree with its partners on a comprehensive list of reforms to secure €7.2billion remaining from its €240billion EU/IMF bailout. Despite concerns raised yesterday, Eurozone and Greek officials indicated that Athens could probably scrape together public cash reserves to meet its payment obligations into June. But it faces a hump of bond redemptions to the ECB in July and August that it cannot meet without a fresh injection of funds. The ECB's chief economist, Peter Praet, said the central bank was prepared to keep authorising emergency lending to Greek banks for now because they were assessed to be solvent. 'It is true that it is a stressful situation,' Praet said at an event in Berlin. 'I'm not going to discuss how long this will go on. Verbal discipline is of the essence in crisis times.' Tsipras, elected in January on an anti-austerity platform, is resisting cutting pensions, liberalising the labour market or raising value-added tax on Greek holiday islands. EU officials said Brussels was pressing Athens to move ahead with other measures, such as a radical shake-up of product and service markets to sweep away privileges and protections for vested interests, . It also called for greater fairness in taxation to shift the burden to the better-off and improve collection. They are also looking for progress on privatisations, which leftist ministers halted when they took office in late January. Tsipras's office said he would also have a private meeting with French President Francois Hollande on the summit sidelines. Greek daily Kathimerini reported that Athens is considering asking the euro zone's rescue fund to buy Greek government bonds held by the ECB to pay for debt redemptions due this summer. 'The aim of the government's plan is to have the European Stability Mechanism buy the bonds and reach a deal to repay them further out in time, as is the case with loans from the EFSF (European Financial Stability Facility),' the paper said without citing sources. That would amount to a third Greek bailout requiring euro zone governments' agreement and parliamentary approval in some countries, such as Germany and Finland, which could only be achieved if there were a deal on a comprehensive reform package.
highlights: Greece could go bust next week as salaries and EU debt repayments loom .
  Failing to pay workers will be humiliating for left-wing Syriza government .
  But default on €200m IMF payment in May would plunge EU into new crisis .
  UEFA threatens to ban Greece from international football in row over law .
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