EU summit on Greece scrapped

A planned meeting of European Union leaders has been cancelled as crisis talks continue about Greece's place in the single currency zone.

All 28 leaders, including David Cameron, had been expected to attend Sunday's meeting in Brussels, but now talks will be confined to politicians from the eurozone countries.

European Council president Donald Tusk confirmed he had cancelled the meeting of all 28 members but said the leaders of the eurozone nations would meet later on Sunday and the meeting would "last until we conclude talks on Greece".

The move came after divided eurozone finance ministers held "very difficult" talks on Greece late into the night on Friday.

Some eight hours of talks failed to make a breakthrough, with eurozone nations citing a lack of trust in Greece's radical Syriza government implementing the austerity measures promised in exchange for a third bailout.

Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras has offered to implement tax rises and spending cuts in return for a financial lifeline of 53.5 billion euro to stave off bankruptcy and the possibility of crashing out of the euro.

Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem said: "We had an in-depth discussion on Greek proposals. The issue of credibility and trust was discussed and also, of course, the financial issues involved."

The Dutch finance minister added: "It is still very difficult, but work is still in progress."

In Finland, there were reports that the coalition government was refusing to back further assistance for Greece.

In a sign of the increasingly desperate attempts to find a solution to the crisis, reports suggested that Germany was pushing the idea of a temporary five-year long Greek exit - Grexit - from the eurozone.

Theodoros Mihopoulos, who heads Mr Tsipras' office, said the report in Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper "is completely denied".