PM tells creditors to be 'more realistic'

Athens will stand its ground until its creditors become "realistic", Greece's prime minister said on Monday, a day after last-ditch debt talks collapsed and raised fears of a Greek default and exit from the eurozone.

"We will wait patiently until the institutions become more realistic," Alexis Tsipras wrote in the daily newspaper Efimerida ton Syntakton, adding that "political opportunism" was driving creditors to keep pressing Athens to make cuts to pensions.

Alluding to criticism from within his anti-austerity Syriza party and the position that Athens has made numerous concessions since the start of the negotiations, Tsipras said: "Some see as weakness our sincere desire for a solution and the steps we have taken to bridge the differences."