Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel later as he seeks more time for Greece to make spending cuts.
He will then travel to France on Saturday for talks with President Francois Hollande.
Mrs Merkel and Mr Hollande met on Thursday to discuss Greece and urged Athens to stick with the tough reforms.
The reform targets are a condition of Greece continuing to receive bailout loans.
The “troika” of donor bodies monitoring the bailout – the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Commission – are due in Athens next month.
Greece’s continued access to the bailout packages depends on a favourable report from the trio.
‘Breathing space’
The country is currently trying to finalise a package of 11.5bn euros ($14.4bn; £9.1bn) of spending cuts over the next two years.
It is also being asked to put in place economic and structural reforms, including changes to the labour market and a renewed privatisation drive.
- 22 August: Greek PM Antonis Samaras met Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker
- 23 August: Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande met to discuss Greece
- 24 August: Chancellor Merkel and PM Samaras meet
- 25 August: President Hollande and PM Samaras meet
- Early September: Troika staff go back to Greece
- 14-15 September: Gathering of European finance ministers in Cyprus
- Troika’s review of progress to be published by the end of September
- 8-9 October: Finance ministers attend two days of meetings in Luxembourg
The measures are needed to qualify for the next 33.5bn-euro instalment of its second 130bn-euro bailout.
Greece needs the funds to make repayments on its debt burden. A default could result in the country leaving the euro.
In an interview published on Wednesday, Mr Samaras told Germany’s biggest daily newspaper, Bild, that his country needed “a little breathing space” in order to kick-start growth and reduce its deficit.
He is seeking an extension of up to two years for the painful steps, in order to provide Greece with the growth needed to improve its public finances.
Mrs Merkel has previously said that she and Mr Samaras will not make any decisions on the issue in their talks on Friday.
‘Necessary efforts’
Although eurozone chief Jean-Claude Juncker has kept the door open for a change to the bailout terms, Germany and France have warned Athens that it should not expect any leeway unless it sticks to the reform targets.
On Thursday, Mrs Merkel said: “For me, it’s important that we all stand by our commitments, and in particular await the [publication of] the troika report, to then see what the result is.
“But I will encourage Greece to follow the path of reform, which demands a lot of the Greek people.”
Volker Kauder, the leader of Mrs Merkel’s conservative parliamentary group, told German television on Friday that neither the terms nor the content of Greece’s rescue deal could be renegotiated and that a Greek exit would be no problem for the euro.
France’s Mr Hollande has said he hopes Greece will remain within the eurozone, but added that “of course Greece must make the necessary efforts for this to happen
BBC
