by Maria Spiliopoulou
ATHENS, June 3 (Xinhua) -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is likely to hold the part of technical advisor in the Greek bailout program, rather than participating with funds, Greek media reported on Sunday.
"IMF will probably assume the role of technical advisor, as there is no time and differences on the debt load between the international organization and the Europeans remain open," Greece's representative at IMF Michalis Psalidopoulos said.
On Saturday, the latest meeting of the so-called Washington Group in Whistler, Canada ended fruitless on the Greek issue, Greek "banking news" financial news portal, noted.
Following the summit of finance ministers and central bank governors of the seven largest industrialized countries (G7), IMF head Christine Lagarde, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and European finance ministers participating in the G7 group discussed the Greek debt relief prospects an IMF's role in the third Greek bailout since 2010 which ends this August.
In order to participate in the third Greek program, as in the previous bailouts, IMF had insisted from the beginning, in 2015, for more drastic measures to ensure the sustainability of the Greek debt burden in the future.
Athens is also requesting an imminent decision from European creditors on debt relief measures to seal a comprehensive agreement for the post-bailout era preferably by the EU's summit later this June, but there still seems to be no common ground in many issues among lenders, "banking news" noted.
What is almost certain at the moment is that the debt sustainability analysis to be included in the next IMF report for Greece could potentially be more flexible than a debt analysis on which the Fund's financial contribution would depend, Psalidopoulos said.
The improved IMF forecasts for Greece's macroeconomic figures along with the announcement of debt relief measures by the Europeans will lead the Fund to render the debt sustainable in the medium term, he added.
Regardless of the outcome on this topic, Psalidopoulos stressed that no side is talking about the idea of an extension of the Greek program after August 20, 2018.
