Athens (AFP) - The Greek government cautioned against premature celebration on Friday amid cautious optimism following its crunch talks with the EU that it could reach a deal to overhaul the country's bailout."We don't want to spread enthusiasm before the deal is done," government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis told Antenna TV."Greeks should understand that this is a critical and difficult negotiation, the pressure is enormous," Sakellaridis said.Athens on Thursday agreed at an EU leaders' summit to start technical talks with eurozone partners in a bid to find common ground over the new hard-left government's plans to ditch part of the country's unpopular EU-IMF bailout.Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said that he discussed with his counterparts the possibility of a six-month bridging programme to give Greece time to work out a different programme that would be acceptable to its creditors."Bridge of dialogue," wrote centre-left Ethnos daily while liberal Kathimerini saw a "window of opportunity for compromise."Greek stocks opened with a 7.0-percent jump on Friday.A meeting of eurozone finance ministers on Monday are to discuss the technical proposals in a last-ditch effort.Greece is facing a possible exit from the euro when its 240-billion-euro ($270-billion) EU-IMF bailout expires at the end of February. Join the conversation about this story »
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