by Our Foreign Desk

INTERNATIONAL creditors resumed negotiations with Greece yesterday in an attempt to head off Sunday’s referendum on bailout terms.

At midnight central European time, the country was also set to become the first developed nation to fail to make a debt payment to the International Monetary Fund on time.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s office said the proposal was “for the full coverage of (Greece’s) financing needs with the simultaneous restructuring of the debt,” but provided no further details.

Earlier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel had dampened hopes of a quick deal being reached to extend the existing bailout.

“The programme runs out tonight, at exactly midnight central European time,” Ms Merkel said in Berlin. “I know of no solid indications to the contrary.”

A Greek government official said Mr Tsipras had spoken earlier in the day with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, European Central Bank head Mario Draghi and European Parliament president Martin Schulz.

On Monday, Mr Juncker said he felt “betrayed” by Syriza and called on Greek voters to oppose the left-wing party.

“I’d like to ask the Greek people to vote Yes.

“I very much like the Greeks and I’d say to them: ‘You should not commit suicide because you are afraid of death’,” he said in an emotional speech delivered against a backdrop of giant Greek and EU flags.

His statement outraged many Greek people mindful of the human cost of EU-imposed austerity cuts which have bled their country dry for the past four years, with the suicide rate reported to have risen by a third.