Hollande says "little time" to prevent Greece from leaving eurozone

PanARMENIAN.Net - The French President Francois Hollande said there was "little time" to prevent Greece from leaving the eurozone, BBC News reports.

Hollande said on Monday, June 15 the ball was firmly in Greece's court .

"It's not France's position to impose on Greece further cuts to smaller pensions, but rather to ask that they propose alternatives," he said on a visit to Algiers. "We have to get to work... Everything must be done in order that Greece remains in the eurozone."

Talks with Greek and EU officials in Brussels on Sunday failed to reach an agreement that would release bailout funds to Greece.

Eurozone finance minister will meet on Thursday, but Greece's Yanis Varoufakis said he did not plan to present new proposals at the meeting.

"The Eurogroup [of eurozone finance ministers] is not the right place to present proposals which haven't been discussed and negotiated on a lower level before," he told German newspaper Bild.

The prospects of a Greek default in just over two weeks' time have worried investors.

The FTSE 100 in London fell 1.1% to 6,710 points, while the Dax in Frankfurt lost 1.9% and the Cac 40 in Paris shed 1.75%.

In the U.S. the Dow Jones closed down 0.6%, or 107 points, to 17,791.

Athens' benchmark ATG index, which fell 5.9% on Friday, fell a further 4.7% on Monday.