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Embattled Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos faced growing EU pressure Monday to agree tough new austerity measures in a new bailout as the timetable for a showdown with his coalition partners slipped.

As calls for a general strike compounded the sense of crisis, a key meeting due later Monday with heads of the socialist, conservative and far-right parties which form his coalition government was put back.

The talks, needed to secure approval of stinging austerity measures, "will very probably be held on Tuesday," a government source told AFP, adding: "The negotiations continue, there are still questions to address."

Papademos was to meet officials from the EU, European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday, aiming to wrap up weeks of negotiations and save his country from a historic default in March that could roil the 17-nation eurozone and undercut a global economic recovery.

In Paris, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy ramped up pressure on Athens, as did the spokesman for a European commissioner in Brussels.

Merkel warned that Greece would receive no more EU aid to cope with the debt crisis until Athens reached a deal with the EU, ECB and IMF 'troika' on more spending cuts and reforms.

"The Greeks gave us undertakings," Sarkozy added. "They should respect them scrupulously. There's no choice."

A spokesman for EU commissioner Olli Rehn warned that Greece had already in effect missed the deadline to get the deal done by the coalition to reshape the economy and slash its debt in exchange for another bailout.

"The truth is that we are already past the deadline," spokesman Amadeu Altafaj said.

"The ball is in the Greeks' court," Altafaj added.

Meanwhile, the country's two main unions called a 24-hour general strike for Tuesday to protest the new measures, the Ana news agency said.

The measures are a death sentence for the country, aimed at slashing salaries by 20-30 percent on top of previously imposed cuts, Ana reported Iannis Panagopoulos, leader of the GSEE private-sector union, as saying.

While the EU has sharpened its position on providing another 130 billion euros ($170 billion) in aid to Greece, there was little news on progress at parallel but separate talks between Athens and its private creditors.

Grouped within the Institute of International Finance (IIF), negotiators representing banks, insurance companies and private institutional investors held talks on Sunday on cutting some 100 billion euros from the roughly 200 billion in Greek government debt they hold.

After five hours of talks on Sunday, Papademos did manage to get limited agreement with his coalition partners on a state savings target of 1.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) that would include the implementation of reforms to lower production costs and a scheme to recapitalise Greek banks.

Reports said outstanding issues included the size of cuts to complementary pension programmes, a reduction in the minimum wage demanded by the EU, IMF and ECB, and the number of civil service job cuts.

The troika "is putting less emphasis on fiscal targets and more emphasis on the structural and labour market issues that really matter for Greece," Berenberg Bank chief economist Holger Schmieding commented.

Greece is burdened with a debt total of about 350 billion euros and must pay 14.5 billion euros in bonds due on March 20.

Athens is under intense pressure from the 'troika' to cut its total debt burden down to 120 percent of GDP in 2020 from 160 percent at present.

EU commission spokesman Altafaj said the Greek government was engaged in an unprecedented effort, having "lived beyond its means for a very long time."

Analysts at Citi said the talks "are at a critical phase right now and it seems that the Europeans are less likely to blink than in was the case in previous rounds."

AFP