IMF tells EU it must give Greece unconditional debt relief

Fund's debt assessment calls for 'upfront and unconditional' debt relief for Athens or it will refuse to part-fund latest bailout

The International Monetary Fund has called for "upfront" and "unconditional" debt relief for Greece as it warned that without immediate action the financial plight of the recession-ravaged country would deteriorate dramatically over the coming decades.

In a strongly worded assessment, the IMF said that there was no prospect of Greece meeting the draconian terms of its current bailout plan and that interest payments on the soaring national debt would eat up 60% of the budget by 2060 in the absence of debt forgiveness.

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