Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, pressing for cash to keep his country afloat, began talks with Germany's Angela Merkel today after Berlin ruled out any breakthrough in differences with the euro zone over Athens's international bailout.

The German chancellor and Greek leader have played down talk of a showdown or expectations that he would use his first official visit to present a new list of reform proposals, which he promised European Union leaders at a summit last week.

Tsipras' pledge to submit a full reform package within days to unlock money that Greece needs to avoid crashing out of the euro has met deep scepticism in Germany, the currency zone's largest economy and a stickler for fiscal discipline.

"They have to fulfill their obligations," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said, urging a "more serious" tone to exchanges that often descend to insults and accusations.

A crowd outside the Chancellery, where Tsipras and Merkel reviewed an honour guard, tried to put a more positive spin on bilateral ties. They waved banners with pink hearts proclaiming "German loves Greece" and vice-versa and a Greco-German couple kissed. The talks began shortly after 5 p.m. (1600 GMT) and were due to be followed by a news conference and a working dinner.

Merkel, accused by Athens of seeking to force more austerity on a devastated economy, was looking for concrete ideas from the leftist premier on how to resolve the standoff over the terms of the 240 billion euros ($260 billion) in bailouts for Greece.

Her spokesman Steffen Seibert said Greece's commitment was with the euro zone as whole, not Germany, "so if there is a reform list shortly as Greece has promised, it will be presented to the Eurogroup, not to individual governments".

But the history of the euro crisis shows Merkel's approval is crucial and Seibert added: "Of course it's interesting for the chancellor to her from the Greek prime minister's mouth what his ideas are."

UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER?

News that Tsipras wrote to Merkel last week warning Greece would find it impossible to make debt payments in the next few weeks without more financial help provided an unpromising backdrop for talks that already promised to be tense.

"It's not a threat, it's reality," a spokesman for the Greek government, Gabriel Sakellaridis, told Mega TV when asked if the March 15 letter was meant to make it clear Athens would choose paying wages over reimbursing debt.

Tsipras blamed European Central Bank limits on Greece's ability to issue short-term debt as well as euro zone bailout authorities' refusal to disburse any cash before Athens adopts new reforms, according to the Financial Times newspaper.

Former prime minister Antonis Samaras accused Tsipras of "whining to foreign leaders". Opposition lawmaker Fofi Gennimata said it was akin to saying "I surrender unconditionally and expect you to save me with a third bailout".

ECB chief Mario Draghi said he was ready to start accepting Greek bonds again as collateral for lending to Greek banks as soon as conditions were in place for the successful conclusion of a review of the bailout programme. But he also said Athens should commit to fully honour its debt obligations.

The distrust felt by Merkel's conservatives towards Tsipras' leftist government - and especially his Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis - was unlikely to be improved by his plans to meet Germany's opposition radical Left and Greens parties on Tuesday.

Berlin also pre-empted any Greek attempt to link the bailout debate to Athens' revival of reparation claims over the Nazi occupation of Greece in World War Two. This issue "is a closed chapter for us", a German foreign ministry spokesman said.

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