Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras started a European charm offensive yesterday with an appeal to Germans for more time to meet Athens’ borrowing obligations, but he may struggle to make his case in a series of meetings this week with EU leaders.

“All we want is a bit of air to breathe to get the economy running and to increase state income. More time does not automatically mean more money,” Samaras said in an interview with Germany‘s mass-market Bild newspaper, which has often taken a ferociously sceptical line on bailing out Greece.

“Let me be very explicit: we demand no additional money. We stand by our commitments and by fulfilling all our requirements. We have to crank up growth because that decreases the financial gaps,” Samaras added in the interview, which ran hours before he begins talks in Athens with eurozone chief Jean-Claude Juncker.

Appointed in June after two tumultuous parliamentary elections, Samaras hopes to persuade Luxembourg premier Juncker, who chairs the Eurogroup of 17 governments which use the common currency, that the debt-laden Greek nation has the will to ram through unpopular reforms and deserves more time to do it.

With cash coffers running empty and renewed talk of a Greek eurozone exit without more aid, Samaras is under pressure to convince European leaders that Greece has finally mustered the political courage to fulfil promises under its latest bailout.

Juncker, the most influential European policymaker to visit Athens since the conservative-led government took power on June 20, is expected to tell Samaras that Greece must carry out promised cuts and that little room for leeway exists.

In response to Samaras’s comments to Bild, the Dutch finance minister gave a rapid taste of attitudes in the eurozone’s less indebted states, questioning the idea of extending the time granted to Athens to meet its commitments.

“If it concerns delaying reforms and budget cuts, then it is not a good idea,” Jan Kees de Jager told reporters.