Tsipras summons parliament for bailout deadline

In a letter sent to the Athens parliament speaker, Tsipras said he wanted to have the draft law on the bailout submitted as soon as possible, so it could be distributed to lawmakers and discussed in a parliamentary committee on Wednesday - before a voting session on Thursday.

"The crucial nature of the situation requires the immediate convening of parliament to proceed with the deal's approval and allow the disbursement of the first installment," Tsipras said in the letter published by his government.

Greece is scrambling to get the deal through parliament in time for eurozone finance ministers to issue their approval by Friday, so that aid can be disbursed in time for a debt repayment to the ECB on August 20.

All eyes on Athens as Tsipras promises reforms

Tsipras' letter to parliament followed an announcement Tuesday that a "technical deal" had been reached with Greece's international creditors. The two factions have been going back and forth for weeks on the conditions of the bailout, and at times rifts developed between two of those lendors, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the EU.

"The institutions and the Greek authorities achieved an agreement in principle on a technical basis. Now as a next step, a political assessment will be made," said EU Commission spokeswoman Annika Breidthardt on Tuesday.

"As long as negotiations are ongoing and no political agreement is reached, we will not comment on the details of any agreement," Breidthardt said.

The spokeswoman added that EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker would hold talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande later on Tuesday.

According to reports on Monday, the deal would witness the dispersal of at least 85 billion euros ($94 billion) once the Greek parliament passed a set of reforms, including the formation of a controversial privatization fund that nearly froze talks in July.

MPs in Athens will be looking at a bill split into two articles, one on the loan agreement and the other on the necessary reforms to unlock the loan's first disbursement.

The agreement stipulates that Greece is expected to have a budget surplus of 0.5 percent in 2016, followed by 1.75 percent in 2017, and 3.5 percent in 2018, though the balance would not include debt servicing, according to a government source. For 2015, Greece is expected to have a primary deficit of 0.25 percent of the year's output.

Greece is facing a looming ECB repayment of 3.4 billion euros ($3.7 billion) - the deadline is August 20. Without a deal, debt-stricken Greece would have defaulted on another one of its loans, after becoming the first industrialized nation to fall in arrears with the IMF for failing to meet a June 30 repayment deadline.

glb/rc (AFP, Reuters, dpa)