Greek Tragedy: Germany holds emergency summit with Athens's creditors as deal deadline looms

Germany, France and Greece's main creditors have held an emergency summit in Berlin in a bid to speed up efforts to reach a deal with Athens before it defaults.

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde and Mario Draghi, the head of the European Central Bank, met Chancellor Angela Merkel, France's President François Hollande and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker for the unannounced talks.

The meeting was convened hastily amid fears that Greece will default on its loans to the creditors, which are under intense pressure to release a €7.2bn (£5.2bn, $7.9bn) bailout loan. If Athens defaults, Greece might have to leave the euro – a Grexit.

A German government spokesman said the sides "agreed that work must continue with real intensity. The participants in the talks were in close contact in recent days and want this to remain the case in the coming days both among themselves and of course with the Greek government."

Greece is due to make a €300m repayment to the IMF on 5 June amid growing doubts about its ability to meet all this month's financial obligations.

Meanwhile, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, in an article in the French daily Le Monde, accused Greece's creditors of making "absurd proposals" and disregarding Greek democracy. He added that they amounted to "the complete abolition of democracy in Europe" and the creation of a "technocratic monstrosity".

In one bit of good news for Tsipras and his radical Syriza government, one EU official was quoted by the Financial Times as saying that any offer from Greece's creditors to Athens would not be framed as a "take it or leave it" ultimatum. It would instead be presented as an outline for a "quick reaction".