Greece offers concessions to win euro zone loan extension, Germany objects

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By Renee Maltezou and Jan Strupczewski ATHENS/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Greece formally requested a six-month extension to its euro zone loan agreement on Thursday, offering major concessions as it raced to avoid running out of cash within weeks, but immediately ran into strong objections from EU paymaster Germany. Berlin's reaction was hostile, with the finance ministry describing the Greek proposal as "not a substantial solution" as it failed to fulfill conditions of an EU/IMF bailout program which leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had promised to ditch when he won an election last month. With the program due to expire in little more than a week, Athens urgently needs to secure a financial lifeline to keep the country afloat beyond late March. Euro zone finance ministers will meet on Friday afternoon in Brussels to consider the request, the chairman of their Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said in a tweet.




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