EUROPE showed a willingness Tuesday to give Athens more time to pay its debts, but said it wouldn’t yield to a new Greek Government’s demands for debt forgiveness, warning that Greece’s economic problems had not disappeared.

    The European Union responded to Greek anti-bailout party Syriza’s election victory Sunday by saying that a debt reduction for Greece would be against eurozone rules and would send the wrong message to other members.

    Before any talks on more time for Greece to repay its debts can start, Athens must get an extension of its existing bailout to give itself time for negotiations on future economic policy and on longer loan maturity with international lenders.

    “We are very motivated to work with the new Greek Government to maintain the recovery path,” said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chaired a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels.

    But he said Greece’s challenges, from mass unemployment to being shut out of financial markets, were still there and would need to be resolved in coordination with the eurozone.(SD-Agencies)