Greece’s international creditors signalled yesterday they were ready to compromise to avert a debt default even as Athens warned it might skip an IMF loan repayment due this week.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras held telephone talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande yesterday before meeting EU Commission President Jean Claude Juncker in Brussels, a Greek government official said.

“The three leaders agreed on the need for low primary budget surpluses for Greece and the need for an immediate solution,” the official said.

With time running out, and looking to draw a line under months of acrimonious negotiations, the creditors have effectively come up with a take-it-or-leave-it offer.

However, Tsipras has produced a plan of his own and said he intended to discuss this document in Brussels, calling on eurozone partners to show some “realism” and urging a deal that would let Greece escape from “economic asphyxiation”.

Asking too much of Greece could stifle growth. Asking too little would have consequences for the eurozone as a whole

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said an initial look at Greece’s reform suggestions indicated that talks aimed at securing an aid-for-reforms deal will take time.

“I have no information that anything decisive has changed in terms of substance,” he said at an event in Berlin.

Looking for a compromise, the creditors will suggest that Greece should post a budget surplus before interest payments of one per cent of gross domestic product this year and two per cent in 2016, against three per cent and 4.5 per cent under the terms of the current plan, sources familiar with the proposal said.

By contrast, the sources said the Greek government, elected in January pledging to end years of bitter austerity, had suggested a primary surplus of 0.8 per cent this year and 1.5 per cent next year.

Athens also offered to curb early retirements to save on pension payouts in line with previous proposals, but it was not clear if it had offered any new concessions demanded by lenders on labour and pension reform.

It was also not clear if the major creditors – eurozone governments, the International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank – had shown any flexibility in these areas.

Sounding more upbeat and conciliatory than Germany, France suggested that an agreement was within reach. “We are a few days or hours away from a possible deal on Greece,” French President Francois Hollande told a conference organised by the Paris-based OECD think tank.

“Asking too much of Greece could stifle growth. But asking too little would have consequences for the eurozone as a whole.”