by Angeline Benoit & Nikos Chrysoloras, Bloomberg

Greece has no plans to present new proposals at a meeting of European finance ministers this week, signaling the country won’t make further concessions to unlock bailout funds needed to avoid default.

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis told Bild newspaper any new proposals would need to be thrashed out at a lower level before they could be presented to the finance ministers set to meet June 18 in Luxembourg. He said that Greece remains willing to find a solution but creditors need to take Greece’s proposals seriously to end the impasse.

Stocks declined as the extent of the remaining policy divide was laid bare after weekend talks billed by European officials as a last attempt to end the standoff broke up early.

Europe needs a “strong and comprehensive agreement, and we need this very soon,” European Central Bank President Mario Draghi told lawmakers at the European Parliament in Brussels on Monday. “While all actors will now need to go the extra mile, the ball lies squarely in the camp of the Greek government to take the necessary steps.”

With signs that negotiating fatigue was stoking intransigence on all sides, some euro-area officials publicly raised the prospect of Greece’s exit from the currency region as the Greek government suggested it had reached the limits of its ability to make concessions. Greece is resisting demands for further cuts in pension spending as well as tax increases.

Stocks Decline

Asian stocks declined on Tuesday, following the drop in European shares on Monday, with the MSCI Asia Pacific Index shedding 0.5 percent. The Athens Stock Exchange Index fell 4.7 percent on Monday, while the Athex Banks Index dropped 8 percent, after a 12 percent tumble on Friday.

Government backers plan to rally on Wednesday at the central square in Athens, according to a call posted on Facebook pages. Governing party officials, including Deputy Minister for Social Insurance Dimitris Stratoulis, have urged their followers on social media to join the demonstration.

French President Francois Hollande, during a visit to Algiers on Monday, insisted talks must continue and that some progress on the primary surplus target had been made, even if tax and pensions remain sticking points.

Euro Exit?

“Everything must be done to keep Greece in the euro zone,” he said in a news conference with his Algerian counterpart. “But Greece must understand that to remain in the euro zone it must make an effort.”

Finance Ministry officials from the 19-nation euro zone are due to hold a Greece call on Tuesday ahead of the meeting of ministers later this week.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s government said that it was awaiting an invitation from its creditors and is ready to respond anytime to continue the negotiations.

Two international officials said the opposite, and that the creditors were waiting for the next move to come from Athens. Neither was authorized to speak publicly on the matter. Varoufakis’s comments to Bild, signaled Greece won’t make an offer before the Luxembourg meeting.

Tsipras, meantime, hasn’t changed his plans to attend the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum this week, his spokesman said. Tsipras, in a statement on Monday, portrayed Greece as the torchbearer of democracy, standing firm against creditors’ demand for pension cuts.

“One can only suspect political motives behind the fact that the institutions insist on further pension cuts, despite five years of pillaging,” Tsipras said. We will wait patiently until “the institutions adhere to realism.”

That prompted a rebuke from the European Commission.

“It is a gross misrepresentation of facts to say the institutions are calling or have called for cuts in individual pensions,” spokeswoman Annika Breidthardt told reporters in Brussels.