Later on Monday, Papademos will have another meeting with members of the EU-IMF troika mission in Athens to conclude negotiations on crucial chapters of the deal that are still not settled.
Earlier on Monday the government missed the noon deadline for responding to painful terms for a new EU/IMF bailout as patience in Brussels wore thin over drawn-out negotiations among its feuding political leaders.
The leaders of France and Germany told the government on Monday time was running out in talks on a broad debt restructuring deal and the country would only get bailout money from Europe if it lived up to its promise to deliver economic reforms in return.
"We want this accord," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said. "Greece's leaders have made commitments and they must respect them scrupulously ... Europe is a place where everyone has their rights and duties. Time is running out, it needs to be concluded, it needs to be signed."
He and German leader Angela Merkel held a news conference after an annual meeting of top government ministers from both countries where they kept pressure up on the interim government to meet reform suggestions set out by "the troika."
Contrary to earlier reports, an official from the finance ministry said "there is no deadline" for the interim government to say whether they accept the painful terms of a new bailout deal to avoid a messy default that could threaten the country's future in the eurozone.
He said the entire Government side had to agree terms of the rescue, which would be the second for Athens since 2010, with international lenders before the next meeting of the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers.
"The only deadline is to have a staff agreement for the second bailout and the agreement of the political leaders before Eurogroup," said the official, who requested anonymity.
No date has yet been set for the Eurogroup meeting, although it is expected this week.
Political leaders must agree on unresolved problems - including labour market change and shoring up domestic banks - to secure the 130bn euro rescue Greece needs by March or risk inflaming tempers in the European Union over what is seen as its dithering on implementing reforms.
Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said after five hours of talks on Sunday that party chiefs had agreed measures including wage cuts and other reforms as part of spending cuts worth 1.5 percent of gross domestic product.
But Pasok spokesman Panos Beglitis said a number of major issues demanded by the troika, representing EU, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund lenders, remained unresolved.
"There are two big issues left – labour and banks ... those have been left for tomorrow," Beglitis said.
Beglitis made clear the leaders of the three parties had much to negotiate as the deadline nears, and must respond to the proposals by noon.
Domestic banks are up to their necks in junk government bonds now worth a fraction of their face value and two coalition parties - New Democracy and the rightwing Laos – have opposed any further spending cuts.
Now the coalition parties must respond to a working group of senior eurozone finance ministry officials who are preparing for a meeting of their ministers later in the week.
Big issues
Newspapers Ta Nea and Imerisia wrote on Monday, without naming their sources, that holiday bonuses in the private sector would be maintained but that the minimum wage would likely be cut to 600 euros from about 750 euros.
Ta Nea added that the European Union and IMF were also pushing for a 35 percent cut in supplementary pensions, another sticking point in the talks.
By late on Sunday, no meeting of the Euro Working Group had been formally scheduled for Monday but it could hold a conference call or schedule a face-to-face meeting at short notice, depending on the outcome of talks in Athens.
Alarmed by the prospect of yet more budget cuts, the country’s two main trade unions said they would call a 24-hour strike for Tuesday in protest against policies which they say have only driven the economy into a downward spiral.
Leftist and communist-affiliated groups will rally on Monday to march to parliament. (Reuters, AMNA, Athens News)
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