Meeting on Greek bailout programme breaks up in disarray

A crunch meeting on Greece between euro zone finance ministers broke up in disarray early this morning as the standoff between the country and its creditors worsened.

The meeting in Brussels came close to agreeing a joint statement on the country's precarious financial situation but the draft was shelved at the last moment after Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis raised fresh objections.

A senior euro zone source said the German minister, Wolfgang Schauble, had left the meeting minutes earlier on the basis that a joint statement had been settled on a route forward for the talks. Discussions on the statement centred on the language to be used to describe a continuation of the programme.

Mr Varousfakis’s late intervention was said to have followed phone calls to Athens.

At a brief press conference shortly after midnight, chairman of the meeting, Netherlands finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said there would be no further talks until another scheduled gathering of ministers next Monday.

The expiry of EU-IMF programme for Greece at the end of this month has already led the European Central Bank to withdraw some support for country's banks on the basis that it sees no prospect of the scheme continuing.

Although Greece is under acute pressure from its euro zone sponsors to accept an extension of the programme, the country's premier Alexis Tsipras has insisted he has a mandate to refuse any continuation of the plan.

Mr Varoufakis told reporters he still anticipated that the negotiations will end on Monday.