June 30--REPORTING FROM ATHENS -- In a bid to avert imminent bankruptcy, the Greek government Tuesday proposed a new bailout deal that would keep it afloat for two years as well as address its crippling mountain of public debt.
The offer came hours before the Mediterranean nation's current bailout package expired Tuesday night, and Athens missed a payment owed to the International Monetary Fund.
An indication that it might offer a basis to resume failed talks came with the scheduling of an emergency teleconference that evening between Eurozone finance ministers by their leader, Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem.
After the teleconference, the Finnish minister, Alexander Stubbs, said via Twitter that the group had, as expected, denied Greece's request for an extension of the current package of rescue loans. But he kept the door open to the possibility of a new bailout negotiated through regular European Union channels and procedures, a process that could take weeks, leaving unclear how Greece would fund itself in the interim.
Dijsselbloem told reporters that Tsipras' government had said it would send a revised proposal Wednesday. The finance ministers' group is to hold another teleconference afterward, he said.
However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel ruled out any further negotiations before Greece holds a referendum Sunday on the latest proposals from international lenders.
"Before the referendum, the German side will not negotiate on any new proposals," Merkel told a meeting of her Christian Democratic Union, according to an online report by Der Spiegel news magazine.
Details of Athens' new offer were sketchy. A brief letter from Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to Dijsselbloem outlined a request for new aid from Greece's European partners to allow it to meet its debt obligations for two years. Such a bailout would be Greece's third in five years.
The letter proposes a restructuring of Greece's staggering debt, which most analysts say is unsustainable in the long term. Tsipras also asked for an extension of the current bailout for "a short period of time" until a new deal can be put in place.
Athens raised the new proposal after a flurry of rumors that Tsipras was being lobbied by opposition politicians and some members of his own left-wing Syriza party to keep trying for a deal with Greece's creditors.
Greek negotiators quit talks last Friday after Tsipras decided to put the creditors' "humiliating" terms to a referendum this weekend and pledged to campaign to defeat them.
The decision stunned other European leaders, who quickly warned that public rejection of the deal would precipitate Greece's expulsion from the group of 19 nations that use the euro currency.
But senior European leaders also pleaded with Greece to return to the bargaining table, insisting that a last-minute deal was still possible.
"From the first moment we had made clear that the decision to proceed with a referendum did not constitute the end, but the continuation of the negotiation with better terms for the Greek people," said a brief statement issued by the Greek government.
Tuesday was the second day of a weeklong bank closure that has seen Greeks limited to about $66 a day in ATM withdrawals aimed at keeping the country's tottering system from collapsing altogether. The Athens stock exchange is also to remain closed for a week.
Times staff writer Chu reported from London and special correspondent Zafiropoulos from Athens. Staff writer Carol J. Williams contributed from Los Angeles.
UPDATES
3:36 p.m.: This article has been updated with Greece missing the deadline to pay the IMF.
11:55 a.m.: This article has been updated with teleconference taking place, Greece to send a new proposal Wednesday.
11:10 a.m.: This article was updated with German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying there will be no negotiations until Greece holds a referendum Sunday.
This article was originally published at 8:50 a.m.
