File Photo: Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. (Reuters)
The Greek government has delayed naming its candidate for president amid reports of internal bickering ahead of today's crunch bailout talks in Brussels.
The ruling Syriza party will announce its candidate "after the important Eurogroup meeting" on Greece's demands to review its bailout, government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis said.
It was the country's failure to elect a president in December that triggered the snap poll the following month that brought Syriza to power.
But critics have repeatedly warned that the party - a coalition of left and radical left parties - could be hampered by internal divisions and all eyes will be on whether they can pull together behind a single candidate.
The nomination, expected at the weekend, is now set for Tuesday ahead of a first vote in parliament on Wednesday, Sakellaridis said.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was widely tipped to favour current European Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, a centre-right moderate he hopes could bridge the political divide and paint a picture of a responsible Greece to the country's international creditors, as the government tries to secure a new deal on its debt.
But Greek media reports today said the nomination had been put back after disagreements within Syriza.
The best-selling Ta Nea daily said Tsipras had "changed strategy after having met with the representative of the left wing of Syriza", Panayiotis Lafazanis, who is also production, environment and energy minister.
"The minister met the prime minister for about an hour on Sunday evening and seemed bothered by the talks," the daily said, adding: "it's well known that a minority of the party does not want a candidate from the centre-right."
The centre-left daily Ethnos ran with the headline: "Presidential candidate thriller", and said a call between Tsipras and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker might have played a part in the delay.
"We cannot rule out that the idea of moving Avramopoulos back to Athens was raised. Sources in Brussels say Juncker is against the idea" of replacing his commissioner with a member of the Syriza party, it said.
Greece's largely honorific president is elected exclusively by parliament, but the candidate is chosen by the government.
If the ruling Syriza party is united, whoever is nominated is expected to breeze through the vote in parliament.
Should Syriza's candidate run into difficulties, however, it risks distracting the government from its efforts to persuade Brussels to cut Greece some slack, and also undermine its credibility.
The previous government failed to win support for its candidate in three rounds of voting, triggering a general election.
The presidential election now picks up where it left off, with the new candidate needing to secure a yes vote from 180 of parliament's 300 lawmakers in this round, or 151 in the next.
Syriza and its minor right-wing coalition partner have 162 deputies so their nomination is secure if all vote in line.