Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis at the end of an Eurogroup finance ministers meeting at the European Council in Brussels. (AFP photo)
The nationalist partner in Greece's coalition government said on Monday that the country would not request a bailout extension in a first official reaction from Athens to an ultimatum from Brussels.
"We will not request any extension, we have a public mandate to go to the end. The Greeks together say no, we will not be blackmailed," Defence Minister Panos Kammenos, who is also the head of the Independent Greeks party, said on Twitter.
A meeting of Eurozone finance ministers in Brussels on Monday failed to find a deal to end a bitter stand-off over Greece's mammoth bailout that risks seeing Athens tumble out of the Eurozone.
Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem said Greece had until the end of the week to request an extension to the programme, which expires at the end of the month.