Greece scathing on German budget 'takeover' plan

Page last updated at 11:40 GMT, Saturday, January 28, 2012 - 16:40 EST

Yahoo!7 News:

Greek Education Minister and former EU commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou ,

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A Greek government minister on Saturday poured scorn on reported calls by Germany for Athens to surrender control of its budget, as Greece said it was close to a deal with its private creditors.

Greek Education Minister and former EU commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou rejected the notion as "the product of a sick imagination".

Amid this latest controversy, senior Greek politicians and private creditors said they were close to reaching an agreement on writing down Greek debt to avert a looming default.

The idea that Greece might cede control over its budget was contained in a German submission to its eurozone partners revealed late on Friday by the Financial Times.

Under the radical German plan, a commissioner appointed by the other eurozone finance ministers would be able to veto budget decisions made by the Greek government.

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