GREECE’S government promised Saturday to offer concessions to creditors to unlock billions of euros in funds and stave off default but kept a defiant anti-austerity tone ahead of a vital summit of eurozone leaders this week.

    With its banks hanging on life support from the European Central Bank (ECB), and billions of euros being withdrawn daily, Greece may have to impose capital controls within days unless a breakthrough is made at today’s summit.

    While Greece has resisted demands for pension cuts and some tax rises, its leaders continue to say a deal is possible to release 7.2 billion euros (US$9.4 billion) in bailout funds from the European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

    However, Europe’s leaders have begun to lose patience after months of fruitless wrangling over what budget cuts and reforms Athens is prepared to deliver in exchange.

    In a column for Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis promised that Greece was prepared to move, although he gave no details.

    “Our side will arrive in Brussels with the determination to compromise further as long as we are not asked to do what previous governments did: to accept new loan tranches under conditions that offer little hope that Greece can repay its debts.”

    He said German Chancellor Angela Merkel faced a “stark choice” over whether to accept an agreement, adding: “The choice, I am very much afraid, is hers.”

    Tsipras met his negotiating team in Athens and was expected to speak to European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker by phone to try to break the deadlock before the emergency summit, an EU official said.

    There was no indication by late Saturday of how further contacts were going. But Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chairs meetings of his euro zone peers, brought forward by 2-1/2 hours a crisis meeting he had called for Brussels today.

    Giving no explanation for the earlier start, Dijsselbloem said ministers would now convene in Brussels at 12:30 p.m. (1030 GMT). Merkel and other eurozone leaders are due to sit down with Tsipras in the same venue at 7 p.m. today.

    European ministers have played down the prospect of a final agreement today but hope that a political understanding can be reached in time for a full deal to be agreed by the end of the month.

    Greece needs money to avoid defaulting on a 1.6 billion euro IMF loan June 30, a step that would endanger ECB support and Greece’s continued membership of the euro. (SD-Agencies)