By Renee Maltezou and Alastair Macdonald BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras held a new round of late-night talks with the leaders of Germany and France and agreed to intensify negotiations with Athens' creditors ahead of a looming default at the end of the month. As ratings agency Standard & Poor's downgraded Greek bonds deeper into junk status, questioning whether Athens can pay its debts, the leftist leader emerged early on Thursday from talks on the sidelines of a summit in Brussels with Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Francois Hollande to express confidence. "We decided to intensify the efforts to bridge the remaining differences and proceed, I believe, to a solution in the coming period," said Tsipras, whose first five months in government have brought Greece to the brink of defaulting on payments to the IMF if it fails to secure new EU funding within three weeks.
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