Greece: France and Germany say doors for talks open - but Athens has to come up with debt plan

French President François Hollande and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, have urged Greece to come up with credible proposals to reach a deal with creditors to stave off a Grexit.

The leaders of the two most powerful economies in the eurozone met on 6 July in Paris a day after the Greek population voted by 61% to 38% to reject the creditors' cash-for-reforms plan.

"The door is open for discussion," Hollande told reporters, standing next to Merkel after talks at the Elysée Palace. He said that both he and Merkel noted that all Greece's mainstream political leaders were in favour of the country remaining in the eurozone.

Hollande added: "It's now up to the government of [Prime Minister] Alexis Tsipras to offer serious, credible proposals so that this will can be turned into a programme which gives a long-term perspective, because Greece needs a long-term perspective in the euro zone with stable rules, as the euro zone itself does.

"I stress that there is not much time."

Merkel said: "We say very clearly that the door for talks remains open and the meeting of eurozone leaders [on 7 July] should be understood in this sense. But at the same time we say that the requirements for starting negotiations about a concrete European Stability Mechanism programme are not present at the moment."

Her spokesman Steffen Seibert, said: "It is up to Greece to make something of this. We are waiting to see which proposals the Greek government makes to its European partners."

No 'unconditional haircuts' for Greece

Germany's economy minister has warned against any unconditional write-off of Greece's debt, saying it would destroy the single currency.

Sigmar Gabriel said he hoped that the Greek government – "if it wants to enter negotiations again, will accept that the other 18 member states of the euro can't just go along with an unconditional haircut. How could we then refuse it to other member states? And what would it mean for the eurozone if we'd do it? It would blow the eurozone apart, for sure,"

At an earlier news conference in Brussels, the European Commission vice-president for the euro, Valdis Dombrovskis, said Athens needed to be "responsible and honest" with its people.

"The 'No' result, unfortunately, widens the gap between Greece and other eurozone countries," he said.

"There is no easy way out of this crisis. Too much time and too many opportunities have been lost."

And Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told his parliament that creditors had no plans to draft a new proposal and it up to Greece to present a plan.

"They must make a decision, this evening or tonight, what they are going to do," Rutte said. "If the Greeks went to Brussels demanding changes because they felt supported by the "No" vote and refused reforms "then I think it is over".

Softly, softly from Italy

However, Italy's top EU affairs official, Sandro Gozi, took a more conciliatory approach.

He told Sky Italia that until now there had been "a dialogue of the deaf", for which all sides bore responsibility.

"If everyone thinks they are totally right and the others are totally wrong we will not make progress," he said. "We have to make an effort to understand the others' point of view."

He added: "We have to work for Greece to remain in the eurozone. I don't believe it is in the interests of anyone to push it into a no-man's land."