By Lefteris Papadimas and Angeliki Koutantou
ATHENS, Jan 30 (Reuters) – Greece’s new leftist government opened talks on its bailout with European partners on Friday by flatly refusing to extend the program or to cooperate with the international inspectors overseeing it.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ government also sacked the heads of the state privatization agency after halting a series of state asset sales.
The politically unpopular policy of privatization to help cut debt is one of the conditions of Greece’s 240-billion-euro bailout that has imposed years of harsh austerity on Greece.
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He said euro zone partners were ready to continue supporting Athens until it can begin borrowing on the markets again “provided that Greece fully complies with the requirements and objectives of the program.”
Earlier on Friday Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis said the government was examining its options on a Canadian-run gold mine, one of the biggest foreign investment projects in Greece.
Privatization had been meant to raise billions for Greece’s depleted state coffers but proceeds have been disappointing so far, amounting to no more than around 3 billion euros, a fraction of an initially targeted 22 billion euros.
($1 = 0.8858 euros) (Additional reporting by Renee Maltezou and George Georgiopoulos; Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Gareth Jones)
