Greece to send loan request to eurozone

Athens - Greece's leftist-led government said it will ask the eurozone on Thursday to extend a "loan agreement" for up to six months, raising prospects of a last-minute deal to keep the heavily indebted country afloat.

While European officials worked frantically with Athens to find a formula, the European Central Bank (ECB) agreed on Wednesday to raise emergency funding for Greek banks, a person familiar with the ECB talks said. But the amount was enough to cover their needs for only a week if nervous Greeks keep pulling their deposits out at the current rate.

Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis expressed optimism that an impasse with fellow eurozone governments could be broken by the end of the week, saying he hoped a proposal to be submitted by Athens on Thursday would gain acceptance including from Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who heads the Eurogroup of the bloc's finance ministers.