| 1 | Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras holds a bottle of water as he is surrounded by photographers during a meeting of ruling radical left Syriza party's central committee in Athens, on Thursday, July 30, 2015. |
| 2 | Tsipras called for an extraordinary party congress in September, after Greece is expected to seal a new bailout deal with its international creditors, in a bid to end a rebellion by his hardline lawmakers that is threatening to topple his coalition government. |
| 3 | ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Lead negotiators from the European Union and International Monetary Fund begin an intensive round of talks with Greece on Friday to hammer out details of a third international bailout worth some 85 billion euros ($93 billion). |
| 4 | Greece needs the money to keep paying its debts and remain in the euro currency. |
| 5 | The envoys are to meet Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos following talks during the week in Athens between lower-level officials on reforming the tax system and labor market regulations. |
| 6 | The bailout talks must be concluded before Aug. 20, when a debt repayment to the European Central Bank worth more than 3 billion euros is due. |
| 7 | Tsakalotos will meet officials from the IMF, European Commission, European Central Bank and European Stability Mechanism. |
| 8 | It comes hours after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras defeated a bid by dissenters in his left-wing Syriza party to push for an end to bailout negotiations and seek a return to the old national currency, the drachma. |
| 9 | The party's governing central committee early Friday backed a proposal by Tsipras to hold an emergency party conference in September, after the talks have been concluded. |
| 10 | Dissenters had sought a conference earlier, pressing the government to abandon the negotiations. |
| 11 | Tsipras effectively lost his majority in parliament in a vote three weeks ago, when nearly one-fourth of Syriza's lawmakers refused to back new austerity measures. |
| 12 | Pro-European Union opposition parties were left to save the bill and have continued to prop up his government. |
| 13 | "We have to agree that we can't go on this way," Tsipras told the committee members during a dramatic 12-hour meeting. |
| 14 | He added that "the absurdity of this strange and unprecedented dualism" within the party must stop. |
| 15 | Far-left dissenters argue that Syriza has abandoned its principles over the past six months under the country's popular prime minister. |
| 16 | They have openly voiced support for Greece to turn its back on the euro as its national currency. |
| 17 | "This country no long has democracy, but a peculiar type of totalitarianism - a dictatorship of the euro," prominent dissenter Panagiotis Lafazanis said. |
| 18 | The third bailout will include a new punishing round of austerity measures heaped on a country reeling from a six-year recession and more than 25 percent unemployment. |
| 19 | Also on Friday, Tsipras is due to appear in parliament to answer qustions from the opposition about contingency plans to adopt a parallel payment system that could have facilitated a euro exit. |