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Greece Slides Past Deadline for Reform Proposals

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FILE - A Greek flag flies behind a statue to European unity outside the European Parliament in Brussels.
FILE - A Greek flag flies behind a statue to European unity outside the European Parliament in Brussels.

Greece slid past its deadline Monday to hand economic reform proposals to its European creditors, but said it would finish them Tuesday morning as part of a deal to extend the Athens bailout for four months.

Last week, European finance ministers gave Greece the Monday deadline to present proposals that would convince the country's creditors to grant the four-month extension.

The 19 European finance ministers in the euro currency bloc are planning to consider the Greek plan Tuesday.

The proposals are aimed at reviving the country's faltering economy and cutting government spending in exchange for renewing the more than $270 billion in loans that are set to expire this week.

Greece has some voice in setting the reforms it wants to make in order to keep its bailout, but the terms must be approved by its European lenders, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The minister of state in the new leftist Greek government, Nikos Pappas, said Sunday officials are working to make the government's civil service "more effective and to combat tax evasion."

But new Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is facing some criticism over the bailout extension pact because he pledged as head of the Syriza party in January's election campaign to end the loan program and the austerity measures imposed by the lenders.

Tsipras says the four-month extension will give Greek officials more time to negotiate with the creditors while keeping the country in the eurozone.

But one of Syriza's most respected members, 92-year-old World War II resistance hero Manolis Glezos, attacked the concessions the new government's leaders made and said he is apologizing to the Greek people for "this illusion" that the austerity measures are ending.

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